A letter to Sen. Boxer

I've just completed writing a letter to Senator Boxer. Below is the letter regarding health care reform and taxation. I'll post her follow up as soon as I receive it.

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Dear Sen. Boxer,

As a concerned constituent living in the Great State of California, it is my duty to voice objection to the current health care legislation movement of which I hold.

The current fiscal state of this country holds little room for further expenditures in areas that are beyond the bounds of those well-outlined areas described in the Constitution of the United States of America.

Nowhere in the Constitution do the framers state that it is in the interest of the United States government to operate and/or mandate a health care system to cover private citizens of the United States. Given the fact that you've taken the oath to uphold the Constitution, I would expect that you would have enough integrity to stand by your word.

This Democratically controlled Congress has ignored the laws of finance and common sense by spending money that currently does not exist, only to be printed on an ad hoc basis. When will this end? Why doesn't my government abide by the same budgetary laws and guidelines that I, and all other Americans, live by?

We - meaning myself and 300,000,000 other Americans - cannot afford to let this Congress experiment with a business they do not understand. Please listen to your constituents and stop this bill now. Not later, not after we've tried it, now. Now.

Senator Boxer, I'm not asking, I'm telling you as my representative. As a servant of the people of the state of California, stop this now. Not later, now.

I promise you that if you continue to push this tax on the American lower and middle classes - don't kid me with upper class taxes - I will spend the remainder of your career, however long or short that may be, working my hardest to get you out of office. I promise.

My very best,

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Sen. Boxer

Prior to the passing of H.R. 1, A.K.A. "Porkulus Bill," I wrote Senator Boxer and asked her to vote no on the bill. I got a response after it passed as follows:

Dear Mr. -------:



Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R.1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. I appreciate hearing your views on this critical bill, which has passed Congress and was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009.

There is a very simple, urgent reason for this legislation: We need to save jobs and we need to create jobs. We need to act quickly and boldly because at the rate we are shedding jobs, we are heading into deeper economic turmoil.

This is a time when the nation must come together. In my view, the Senate had three choices:

One was to do nothing. Doing that, to me, would be a hostile act because it continues the dangerous status quo. Our second choice was to wait for the perfect bill, and of course each Senator would write his or her perfect bill and we'd stall. Or our third choice was to pass the compromise; that is the choice Congress made, and I believe it was the only common-sense choice before us.

I also want to point out that without Republican votes in the Senate, a Republican leadership filibuster would have succeeded. The Republicans who voted for the bill did so out of a deep concern that doing nothing is unacceptable.

H.R.1 will inject $787 billion into our economy through tax cuts and spending on projects to save and create jobs. It will make significant investments in vital infrastructure projects, give much-needed aid to our states, and help to create and save millions of American jobs.

This legislation is far from perfect. But we are in a deepening economic crisis, and I believe it was necessary for Congress to move swiftly to stop it from sliding further. California's unemployment rate is an unacceptable 9.3 percent, and nearly 600,000 jobs were lost nationwide in January alone. Now is the time to invest in our country and our people.

We know that this package alone will not solve the entire problem; we must also address the housing and financial crises, and we will do so.

Again, thank you for writing to me on this important issue. Be assured that I will keep doing all I can to help get America's economy back on track. I will continue working with the Obama Administration and my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle to enact legislation to stimulate growth, create jobs, and make American businesses more competitive in the global economy.

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

Please visit my website at http://boxer.senate.gov

I am not amused.