Do Not Raise Taxes: Letter to Stabenow and Levin

I have been watching a great deal of programming regarding the current economic crisis. I couldn't help but stop myself from sending this letter to the current Senators of the state of Michigan about what a mistake it would be to raise taxes on the richest portion (those individuals who earn higher than 250K a year) of the United States. It would be madness and President Obama would destroy the essence of this country. Please read the letter to further understand why this cannot happen.

Senator Levin,

I must admit, this is the first time I have ever written you. While there have been several incidents over the past couple years that have disturbed me to such a point that I have thought to seek out higher powers in order to alleviate their effect, I have decided that I finally must say something.

There is no way that taxes on the richest families (250K+) in the United States can occur as President Barack H. Obama has proposed.

I understand that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has suggested that the tax increases are, "necessary to make a down payment on health care reform and to limit future budget deficits (AP, Key Democrats oppose Obama's tax deduction plan, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090305/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obama_taxes).
While I support health care reform, we must consider our priorities considering the current economic situation. The establishment of health care reform would be ideal, but it is not the time to do so, and President Obama and Congress need to understand this. Our economy, our livelihood, our way of life, and our stature as a Superpower in the world is at stake if our economy fails us.

We must prioritize our economy now. It is very sick. It is afflicted with what financial pundits refer to as a "Credit-Crunch." The system has stopped flowing. Money has no velocity.

Consider a river that doesn't flow. It is no longer a river, but a still-pond. We cannot allow our economy to go from a river to a still-pond; money must flow in order for the United States of America to function.

By taxing the richest portion of the United States, we are sucking more of that money out of the system. We are further "crunching" the worst Credit-Crunch that has ever occurred. These individuals will breathe life back into the Credit markets by helping the velocity of money. These individuals will be the first ones to go back to banks and get loans that will be wise investments for the banks themselves, because they are loans to intrinsically wealthy people. They will likely not default (what has led us to our current financial mess) and will thus spur the velocity of money and life back into the overall system. These are wise people to handle money for the United States economy. I trust them and you do too.

I am currently a student at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. I am a senior majoring in Organizational Studies and am weeks away from graduation. I work at the Michigan Telefund, in which I call alumni and student's parents soliciting donations to fund the University of Michigan's $7.5+ Billion endowment.
Soliciting donations from the American people today is laughable. People have been laid-off, are getting divorced, and don't have a cent to give to the University or anyone for that matter.

I told a parent tonight that I didn't choose the job because it was going to be easy, I chose it because I knew it was going to be hard.

Regardless, if people funding the education of students at the University of Michigan (where tuition is $47,000 a year) can't part with $25, who possibly can?

If we take more money away from the richest demographic of the United States, they will literally have nothing. We will destroy this country from the inside out as all great empires have done through the ages. We can error as they have, or we can learn from our mistakes.

Thank you,
Tyrone Schiff