An Open Letter to Congresswoman Elise Stefanik

An Open Letter to Congresswoman

Elise Stefanik

December 11,2017

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik

136 Glen Street

Glens Falls, Ny 12801

Dear Congresswoman Stefanik,

           I’m writing this open letter to you because I have serious concerns regarding our country’s national debt. As you know, the country’s debt currently stands at $20T and is rising. Our annual deficits are running $600B to $700B per year with no end in sight. As if that wasn’t bad enough, interest rates have begun to rise, with three rate increases projected for this year and I would guess  two or maybe three next year. This will only make our situation worse.

           As we both know, the problem is the result of too much government spending coupled with the anemic economic growth of the last eight years. The president is trying to alleviate the poor economic growth by getting rid of burdensome regulations and lowering income taxes on large corporations, Sub S corporations and LLC’s. The country has already experienced two consecutive quarters of 3% growth. Hopefully when the Tax Reform Act is passed, we will see even higher rates of economic growth in the coming quarters.

           The president’s goal is to create a more business friendly environment that will attract businesses from other countries and motivate businesses that are already here to expand and hopefully hire more people. Lowering taxes on manufacturers who export also makes those exports more competitive on the world market. In addition, the president wants to lower taxes on individuals. This puts more money into the hands of hard working Americans and will also help grow the economy.

            Democrats are against the president’s tax reform bill because higher income Americans, who are also, by the way, hard working, are getting a larger tax break than lower income taxpayers. This makes perfect sense to me. They are paying more money in taxes, therefore, they should get more money back. Here’s a statistic for you. 71% of government revenue generated by income tax is paid by the top 40 % of earners in the US. How much is enough? I get sick of hearing democrats talk about everyone paying their “fair share.” Here again, how much is their share?

            What this tells me is that democrats are not interested in tax cuts or tax reform. What they really want is actually the transfer of wealth from hard working people in one economic class to hard working people in another economic class. This is called socialism. I am against socialism as any good conservative should be.

             I do have concerns about raising the national debt by $1.5T over the next 10 years. There are,  however, options open to us that will lessen the effect of this increase in the debt. First, we could repeal the Obamacare mandate and save the government, roughly $340B. Also, there is estimated to be between $3T and $4T in corporate profits sitting offshore because the tax rate (35%) to repatriate those funds to the US is too high. This, by itself, if all that money were to be brought back to the US, would generate an estimated $800B in new tax revenue to the government. The balance of the shortfall would be absorbed by increased economic growth. Based on this, I don’t view increasing the debt as a major impediment. I am well aware that this is not the perfect bill, but given the slim majority that we have in the senate, and all the horse trading that had to be done to get this far, it’s probably the best that we could have hoped for. Also, it’s light years ahead of the nation’s current tax code. I strongly urge you to support it.

             Finally, when you were first elected to congress I thought to myself what a great choice we had made. Instead of electing a career politician or some liberal egghead, we elected a conservative business woman from the north country. I am of the opinion that people from the private sector are more motivated, more experienced, and definitely more frugal. I hope this last attribute carries over to your current position in government.

              This open letter will also appear on my blog, “The Shape of Things.” If you have 20 minutes and an interest in what I have to say, please feel free to read my posts, especially the two on the national debt. It will give you a better understanding of my views on the subject. The website address is <https://www.tsothere.com/blog>

               By the way, good luck in your second term.

Sincerely,