When You're In A Hole, Stop Digging.

By Dale Bowling


In a conversation about Mitt Romney's most recent asinine assertion, a prominent Republican Senator
expressed his disapproval by saying that "when you're in a hole, you stop digging." Always good
advice.

The Bush Recession wrecked the economy. Democrats have built a steady recovery, but we fell so far
down the rabbit hole because of Republican excess, that America has had a long, hard road to travel
and many Americans still struggle.

This means that we need to stop digging.

And what would put us further down the hole than saying to the Elderly, the Poor, the Sick (often the
same folks) that, "hey, we know you're having a hard time, but the Deficit is high and though you've
played by the rules your whole working life, paid for your benefits and earned them, we're going to
slash your income drastically because Republicans won't give on keeping tax cuts for rich people"?

Is this how we builder a better, fairer, stronger America? Is that the America that any of us want to live in?

Besides being utterly without decency, the idea of cuts in Earned Benefits, like Social Security and
Medicare or Need-Based Benefits like Welfare or Medicaid, don't even make fiscal sense -  they harm the economy more than they help it.

Both the elderly and the poor spend nearly all the money that they receive. They spend it on food,
health care, rent, keeping the lights and gas on, clothing, etc. Besides greatly improving the quality of
their own lives, this money is cycled back into the economy and represents the earnings of a whole lot of businesses, great and small who pay employees. Maybe like you.

Study after study shows that tax cuts for the rich don't make as much impact on the economy. Rich
people can only consume so much and therefore, less gets put back into the economy. Even their
investments don't produce the job growth that consumption does.

So as a way to reduce the Deficit, tax rate increases on the wealthiest and luckiest of Americans
provide more bang for the buck than decreases in spending for everyone else. The richest Americans represent the place where there is enough excess that can be profitably applied to reduce the Deficit (which their own tax cuts ran up anyway).

This is a matter of fairness. Pure and simple. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

Let your representatives know that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Welfare cuts should take a backseat to increases in tax rates on those who make more than $250,000/year. Their information is
below.

Do it now. 


Congresswoman Judy Biggert- Illinois 13th Congressional District

Address:
Judy Biggert
United States House of Representatives
2113 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-1313

Phone: 202-225-3515

Website:  http://biggert.house.gov/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/judybiggert

Twitter: http://twitter.com/judybiggert



Congressman Peter Roskam- Illinois 6th Congressional District




Address:
Peter Roskam
United States House of Representatives
227 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1306

Ph: 202-225-4561

Website: http://roskam.house.gov/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RepRoskam

Twitter: @PeterRoskam



Illinois Senator Dick Durbin

Address:
Sen. Dick Durbin
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: (202) 224-2152

Website: http://www.durbin.senate.gov/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorDurbin

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SenatorDurbin


Illinois Senator Mark Kirk

Address:
Senator Mark Kirk
524 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC, 20510

Phone: 202-224-2854

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorKirk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/SENATORKIRK