An Open Letter to the American Government

To Whom it May Concern (which is everyone),

I don't know if you've heard but currently, our country is in crisis. Not a day goes by without me picking up a paper to find out who's been screwed over that day. If people are not getting laid-off, their kids are being subjected to harsh cuts to their educational funding, or their parents are being given sub-standard healthcare, or they're standing on lines at unemployment agencies TO CALL unemployment agencies so they can wade through bureaucratic red tape (I'm looking at you, Gov. Ah-Nold).

But the response from you all has been to point fingers and select committees to identify the people who are pointing the fingers and then make a subcommittee to stick their fingers up their own asses. Basically, it's become a giant clusterf*ck rather than what government is supposed to be; a representation and voice for the people it serves.

The problem is that the American people want action and something tangible while you seem more interested in trotting out other people to blame our current mess on. We want things fixed while you guys are trying to throw glue on a broken mug and hope it looks presentable. Contrary to popular belief, the American people aren't afraid of taxes, we're afraid of what you do with our taxes. For instance, I wouldn't mind giving away nearly half my paychecks in taxes if it meant I had low or no-cost healthcare with financial incentives for my doctors to care about my health, efficient and clean public transportation, good, low cost education for my future children and guarantees that my old-age wouldn't be spent in squalor.

And I don't think anyone would disagree with that.

People complain about taxes because they don't see their tax dollars at work. And the idea that giving tax breaks and bailouts to big business is a necessary evil in order to ensure job creation is a myth. In the past ten years, 70% of job creation was done by small businesses. It's not that we have "bailout fatigue", instead we have bailout rage. Everyday we hear about another initiative that has no effect on our every day lives but continues to allow those at the top to live comfortably.

For some reason you've ceased to become our representatives. You've become indifferent to our plight. That needs to end. In Britain after World War II, the government decided that having been devastated by a war and financially stricken, it would impose "cradle to the grave" reforms to improve the lives of their citizens. Are we not a nation indelibly impacted by war? Are we not financially broken? It's time to improve the lives of Americans in a radical way. And it's our government's job to do it.