Dear Senator,

Here is one voter’s opinion for the priorities the Democratically controlled Congress should pursue.

Number zero is to end the war in Iraq. It should never have been started and needs to end now. We still need to help the Iraqi people, as we have set them down this trail of death, but we no longer need to be over there as occupiers.

Number one is to end all Free Trade agreements – these agreements may be great for multinational corporations, but they are killing the middle class in this country. These trade agreements are forcing wages down in this country and they are weakening the strength of the country by sending our manufacturing off shore.

We need trade with foreign countries, but what we need is fair trade, not free trade.

Number two is to end Corporate Welfare. Giving the most profitable companies tax incentives to do better is absurd at best and criminal at worst. Setting up the Medicare prescription program to buy drugs at full price and outlawing negotiating for better prices is an obscene act of greed designed to benefit only the large pharmaceutical companies and to screw the American people. There are many other deals like this passed by the Republicans and they all must be ended.

Number three is to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The tax laws passed by the Republican Congress are designed to concentrate the wealth in this country into the hands of a few; this must be changed to save the middle class of this country.

Number four is to use the tax money that has been going to the rich, mega-corporations and the war to improve our education system and make it free through PhD.

Number five is to fix the run away costs of medical care in this country by providing a single payer system, just as most other industrialized nations have already done successfully.

Number six is to make this country energy self sufficient. This was a priority under President Carter, but President Reagan killed the program and no President since has had the intelligence to see and deal with the problem. We can be energy self-sufficient in 10 years if we decide to – it is time to make this necessary decision and move forward on it quickly.

These are all big problems that may not be fixable in two years, but you have to try, even with a fool in the White House.

Steve McGourty

31 December 2006