This week I have communicated with my 2 senators: Kay Hagan (D) and Richard Burr (R)



Dear Senator Burr:


I spoke with your Administrative Assistant Friday, and want to follow up in writing what I tried to convey. You have convinced me you are a fair-minded person willing to work across the great divide in the Senate. You are my advocate as a small business owner. The failed economy has almost taken me under. Since this last summer, I have done virtually nothing. My beautiful Castalia home was foreclosed. We have moved to Bath and are trying to renovate a summer cottage into a year round home. Without insulation it is often 50 degrees on cold mornings. Talking with others like myself, I have yet to find anyone happy with the current situation. How do we get out??
My father told me a real story of the Depression through which he lived. He was a Georgia tenant farmer’s son who was then Pastor of the Pendleton Baptist Church (SC). The great debate was the same as it is today: Republicans wanted to stimulate by using tax money from the top down, the hopeful Democrats and FDR proposed working from the bottom up. They won and now had to come up with some realistic programs to carry it out. I am sure many wise Republicans participated in a balanced program far from the “give aways” we had in Title XX LBJ days. I was part of the Santee-Wateree region in SC representing Lee County.
The first step involved a major small business of the day: the family farm. Their solution was to recognize there were surpluses such that crop prices were exceptionally low. My maternal grandfather--SC Democratic farmer, no holds bared-- had no market for bales of cotton. My mother remembered the front porch cluttered with bales as their place of play.
The solution: send a check based on an average estimated profit to each farmer who would place his land in the Soil Bank for a year . Thereafter, institute a Crop Stabilization Board which monitored the market and encouraged specified amounts of certain crops which would contribute to a stable farm market in the future. That worked well to the present!
The result: as soon as farmers received their government checks they went to merchants and paid off their account. The merchants, in turn, paid their suppliers the overdue bills. Those merchants could now order inventory to stock their empty shelves. Everywhere goods began to flow within a month! It was so simple and so effective. Why have we forgotten and used the old failed program of bailing out the banks and investment firms along with auto giants? These people all have CPA’s, tax lawyers, and insurance professionals whose sole purpose is to keep everything possible from being taxed. Never before had capitalism focused on the common man except to offer him an entrepreneurial opportunity to get out of poverty. Sadly, few made it.
One of my father’s favorite observations was on the question: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? The answer: A Republican is just a Democrat who has become wealthy and wants to keep it all! So true. As wealth has shifted to the South, every southern state has become a majority of Republicans. I can’t blame them because the Title XX approach made poverty something to be wanted, and the current state of Welfare proves it! In my opinions “workfare” is far superior to “welfare.” Anyone who has been such a poor parent that children won’t pitch in first may deserve the cold house and bare cupboard Title XX was designed to eliminate. It has failed just as dramatically as the $7 billion wasted thus far.
If the money to banks, investment firms, and GM was working, why am I paying 12%+ on a used car recently purchased. Sadly, we were within 6 months of paying off our Chrysler Sebring when a deer jumped into it. Nationwide had a 75% loss and was required by NC law to total it. It could be easily repaired, but the NADA book showed a ridiculous low value. Further, if I could have repaired and kept it I could do so only under a salvage title which made its book value 40% of normal. This whole approach to auto repair is ridiculous in light of the current economy.
Give me the cost of one Iraq war bomb! As a small businessman, my tree company would instantly thrive. I could repay some $27,000 I owe. This is why I quit selling insurance in the same year I was recognized as Underwriter of the Year by the most outstanding chapter of Life Underwriters in NC. It took no time for Congress to vote for the President’s fiasco in Iraq. Please act just as quickly to bomb out this Depression. Check out the website: CostOfWar.com. to see the amount spent thus far!!
I turned my hobby into a profession with good Republican principles: because of economic disaster from the hurricane, no one was buying insurance--they were all paying for tree removal and stump grinding. In this instance, there was an alternative for making money. Right now I know of none outside your wise Federal help.
Your constituent in Bethel who is a small new Chevrolet dealer had his inventory taken and doors closed about two weeks ago. His success was short. His hopes are crushed. His flashing expensive electronic sign by Highway 33 to Greenville has two panels. The enclosed pictures express his thoughts, although he is a dedicated Republican. It could read: Richard Burr and Congress came to my rescue---come in and buy a new car at small town prices! Some re-using of the old programs with new creative thinking could benefit all of us . Call me if I can offer some suggestions as a small business owner. You might consider an Advisory Committee composed of some constituents with good heads and a direct connections hurting from top down economics of your fellow Republicans and Democrats. How long does it take to admit the last bailout failed miserably to help any regular citizens struggling every day to get by.
Question: What is the difference between a Depression and Recession?
Answer: A Recession is when my neighbor lost his job. A Depression is when I lost mine.
No one is paying for tree work these days, hence this is a Depression for me. You receive a regular check which is generous, and Congress even gave itself a far richer retirement than Social Security. Would it be a wise thing right now to rejoin Social Security as an example? Share in the fact there is no Social Security Trust Fund thanks to Johnson spending wildly of the War on Poverty and the Vietnam War at the same time. Where did you get the money for Iraq??? We are worse after spending far beyond the Tax income which funded it. The Federal government is the only legal counterfeiter in the US because you can print more money which is not backed by the gold reserve. The economic result will be the same ungodly inflation we had in the 70’s.
You will blame Obama, but the real ones to blame are those who created a deficit which defies my ability to count. Let’s get real. Let’s get together as American citizens represented fairly by all our representatives in Congress. Bring some good level-headed conservative thinking to balance the funding of programs which help us now on a temporary basis. If it works, vote it. If it has failed, drop it: Drop Iraq, drop any federal program which does not produce results, do not spend money you do not have except to get out of this crisis.
My first question at the Title XX meeting was: For every dollar collected in taxes in Lee County, how much comes back? Washington red tape lets those inside the beltway live royally while the taxpayer gets, I suspect, about 40 cents back in federal help. Any private business would fail quickly with such amounts going to the owner. We have recreated in 200 years exactly what our rebellious forefathers left behind in England and Europe. They were tired of paying for the King and his Advisors to live in the castle while they lived in poverty--cold shacks, little food, disease, and walking while they rode fine horses and carriages. After all, they were supposed to help the peasants. Every time they had to bow while the King, Knights, and Tax Collectors rode by. If they didn’t the IRS of the day would throw them in prison. As they bowed they cursed and spit on the ground without giving any respect for the fat cats!!


Sincerely,
Gene Scarborough