Open Letter to Kay Granger

Kay Granger is my Representative, from Texas 12, in the US House of Representatives.

Following is a letter I sent to her tonight:

Dear Congresswoman Granger,

First, shame on you for having your "email Kay Granger" link on your official http://kaygranger.house.gov/ website go to a phone number rather than an actual email link.

Second, and far more importantly, shame on you for voting to put the American people and your constituents seven hundred billion dollars further into debt.

I listened to Rep. Pete Sessions on KLIF this afternoon, and he dodged that issue shamefully. Shame on him too. Because there was some nebulous language about the "mark-to-market" rules added, and some of the more obnoxious additions by Frank and Dodd had been removed, he thought an initial price tag of $350bn, and upward limit of $700bn, was acceptable. Apparently you did as well.

I'm telling you, as I told you last week, that price tag is NOT acceptable, whatever else surrounds it.

In your email response to me last week, you mentioned that "too much private capital is sitting on the sidelines", and you were correct.

Get that private capital involved. Get FHA-style insurance on the table. Get capital gains cuts on the table. Continue pursuing revision of the "mark-to-market" rules (which, as you know, were an unintended consequence of regulations passed by an earlier Congress). Don't put us, the taxpayers and our children, on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.

I'll repeat, just for clarity: Don't put us, the taxpayers, our children, and grandchildren, on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.

And one more time, in case you weren't paying attention: Don't put us, the taxpayers, our children, and grandchildren, on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars.

I'm this close: "" to putting up a 4x8 sheet of plywood in my yard on the corner of Waltham and Welch, with the message "Kay Granger voted to put us and our grandchildren $700,000,000,000 into debt". I'll wait until your next vote on this issue before I do that. I think that sign might have more impact than the one "Re-elect Kay Granger" sign I've seen in my neighborhood.

If you want to spend $700bn, fine. But it better be balanced by $700bn in spending cuts, in the same bill. (Hint: the IRS and BATFE budgets would be a good place to start cutting.)

Strong message to follow.

Yours truly,
Aaron Neal
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Fort Worth, Tx 76133