- Target:
- Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid
- Region:
- United States of America
This petition was closed the evening before the November 2, 2010 federal election. It was originally meant to be a longer alternative to the "2010 Democratic Platform" petition, but wound up being considerably different. At any rate, both of these related petitions are now closed.
If the author is still alive, kicking, and in control of his faculties in 2014, the topic of providing midterm platforms will probably be taken up once again. After all, our two major political parties have been providing voters with presidential year platforms since the mid-1800s. And in this modern age of instantaneous worldwide communications, where today's printed news can seem outdated before the ink is even dry, each party's platform ought to be updated at least once every 2 years!
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To: Speaker of the House Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid
After members of the Republican leadership in Congress provided voters with "A Pledge to America" in September, former President Clinton said, "I think that the president and the Democrats, even at this late date, should view this as an opportunity and an obligation to say, 'All right, they've organized their national plan. Here's what ours is. If you hire us for 2 more years, here's what we're going to do."
We fully agree. It is time to stop spreading falsehoods about the Republican governing agenda, especially using "Social Security scare tactics to gain ground before the November election." Similar claims were thoroughly discredited by FactCheck.Org and the Washington Post during the 2008 presidential campaign, and we believe your fellow citizens deserve a much more honest national debate about the major economic issues that Congress has failed to deal with.
That's why we urge you to follow the Republicans' lead by providing us with a 2010 Platform that is also focused on job creation and deficit reduction. All voters, especially the third of us who are Independents, have a right to expect at least that much from those we elect to serve us.
It has become apparent to us that your Democratic majority has been distracted by far too many other "top priorities" during the past 2 years, which helps to explain why our unemployment rate rose much faster and higher than in many other industrialized nations, and why our national debt has grown by $3 trillion! It is obviously time to change course, and we recommend that you start by pledging to address all major tax issues in a timely fashion. As Democratic Senator Ben Nelson said after Congress adjourned "earlier than any other Congress over the past 40 years:"
"I would have preferred to have the Bush tax cuts extended for everyone before we left. But the Democratic leadership evaluated that and made the decision not to bring them up. My preference would have been to get them done and passed as quickly as possible so that there is more certainty and clarity for businesses."
The uncertainty over those and some of President Obama's many other tax promises* has undoubtedly had an adverse effect on our nation's economy, and not just for businesses. When it lowered our country's 2011 growth forecast recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated, "Much of the weakness of this recovery is due to sluggish personal consumption." And as that same article points out, consumer spending "accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy."
We are therefore very interested in learning which of President Obama's unfulfilled tax pledges you intend to keep, including the two that appear to have already been broken:
1. No Family Making Less Than $250,000 Will See "Any Form of Tax Increase."
2. End Income Tax for Seniors Making Less Than $50,000
* These tax pledges were taken from the "Obameter" section of Politifact, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters" in their coverage of the 2008 election. They recently determined that, out of the more than 500 promises they have evaluated, only 24% have been kept. This stands in stark contrast to the 70% grade they quoted President Obama as giving himself:
"I keep in my pocket a checklist of the promises I made during the campaign, and here I am, halfway through my first term, and we've probably accomplished 70 percent of the things that we said we were going to do -- and by the way, I've got two years left to finish the rest of the list, at minimum."
To: Speaker of the House Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid
After members of the Republican leadership in Congress provided voters with "A Pledge to America" in September, former President Clinton said, "I think that the president and the Democrats, even at this late date, should view this as an opportunity and an obligation to say, 'All right, they've organized their national plan. Here's what ours is. If you hire us for 2 more years, here's what we're going to do."
We fully agree. It is time to stop spreading falsehoods about the Republican governing agenda, especially using "Social Security scare tactics to gain ground before the November election." Similar claims were thoroughly discredited by FactCheck.Org and the Washington Post during the 2008 presidential campaign, and we believe your fellow citizens deserve a much more honest national debate about the major economic issues that Congress has failed to deal with.
That's why we urge you to follow the Republicans' lead by providing us with a 2010 Platform that is also focused on job creation and deficit reduction. All voters, especially the third of us who are Independents, have a right to expect at least that much from those we elect to serve us.
It has become apparent to us that your Democratic majority has been distracted by far too many other "top priorities" during the past 2 years, which helps to explain why our unemployment rate rose much faster and higher than in many other industrialized nations, and why our national debt has grown by $3 trillion! It is obviously time to change course, and we recommend that you start by pledging to address all major tax issues in a timely fashion. As Democratic Senator Ben Nelson said after Congress adjourned "earlier than any other Congress over the past 40 years:"
"I would have preferred to have the Bush tax cuts extended for everyone before we left. But the Democratic leadership evaluated that and made the decision not to bring them up. My preference would have been to get them done and passed as quickly as possible so that there is more certainty and clarity for businesses."
The uncertainty over those and some of President Obama's many other tax promises* has undoubtedly had an adverse effect on our nation's economy, and not just for businesses. When it lowered our country's 2011 growth forecast recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated, "Much of the weakness of this recovery is due to sluggish personal consumption." And as that same article points out, consumer spending "accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy."
We are therefore very interested in learning which of President Obama's unfulfilled tax pledges you intend to keep, including the two that appear to have already been broken:
1. No Family Making Less Than $250,000 Will See "Any Form of Tax Increase."
2. End Income Tax for Seniors Making Less Than $50,000
* These tax pledges were taken from the "Obameter" section of Politifact, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "separating rhetoric from truth to enlighten voters" in their coverage of the 2008 election. They recently determined that, out of the more than 500 promises they have evaluated, only 24% have been kept. This stands in stark contrast to the 70% grade they quoted President Obama as giving himself:
"I keep in my pocket a checklist of the promises I made during the campaign, and here I am, halfway through my first term, and we've probably accomplished 70 percent of the things that we said we were going to do -- and by the way, I've got two years left to finish the rest of the list, at minimum."
The 2010 Platform petition to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid was written by Tom Foreman and is in the category Politics at GoPetition.