An e-mail I sent to Parker Griffith

Dear Mr. Griffith,

I received your pamphlet with survey questions and would love to give you my answers via e-mail, as the USPS is an outdated form of communication in today's society. However, I should begin by mentioning that none of your questions can be answered by merely checking a "yes" or a "no". As a fellow human being, I'm sure you can understand the complexity of these issues and my need to delve deeper.

"1. Do you support adding nearly a trillion dollars to the national debt to provide health insurance to the uninsured in order to establish government-run health care for everybody?"

To start with, there are a few statements in this question that seem, to me, to result in a loaded question.

First and foremost, the "nearly a trillion dollars" is neither specific nor entirely truthful. The current plans put forth in both the House and the Senate vary in total cost, and both bills are almost entirely paid for by cutting waste and making programs run more efficiently. Yes, there is a temporary increase in spending while the programs get started, but this figure is not remotely "nearly a trillion dollars"

Secondly, nowhere in either bill does the federal government suddenly "run health care for everybody." The bill that includes a public option is simply that: an option.

In short, my answer is that I support the bill passed by the House, and hope to see a final bill that most-resembles that one.

"2. What is your biggest concern about the health care package?
More debt____
More government intrusion_______
Taxpayer funding of abortion_____
Other__________"

Again, this is a loaded question, but I feel I've covered this enough above. My biggest concern is that you and your colleagues will allow partisan politics to get in the way of passing this bill. I work in a pharmacy, so I run into problems with insurance on a daily basis. There is nothing more heart-wrenching than watching a person pass up taking needed medication because he/she either does not have insurance, or his/her insurance decides they will not cover that particular drug. It would take someone truly out-of-touch with humanity to encounter this regularly and not want things to change.

"3. Do you support personal and business tax cuts to spur economic growth?"

I do, but only if these said tax cuts come with strings. The tax cuts MUST be used to create jobs. I believe that the majority of companies want to do right by their employees, but a majority does not equal 100%. Tax cuts should be given to companies who create jobs in this country, as a reward for being part of the solution.

"4. Do you support the deployment of a missile defense system to protect all the citizens of the United States of America?"

I know what you're really asking here is do we want federal contracts to go to our scientists here in northern Alabama. We certainly do have some of the best scientific and engineering minds here at NASA, on the Arsenal, and at various private engineering companies in the area. However, given the tough economy we are in, money needs to be spent wisely.

Once we have developed a system that we know will work, its deployment will have my full support. We've yet to reach that point. Right now the focus must be on research.

Furthermore, spending money on space travel is currently a wasted expense.

Don't get me wrong, the brilliant minds we have here should remain hard at work solving the problems our society faces, but they need to be focused on more pressing issues. There is not a single problem that Madison County cannot solve. I hope that you and your colleagues can point them in the right directions.

I hope my answers help you to make decisions to represent our district on the national level. I will say that as someone who voted for you in 2008, I have been highly disappointed that the promises you've made have not been delivered on. In many cases it seems your opinions have completely changed over the past two years. I sincerely hope that this is the result of honestly changed opinions and not a political strategy.

I eagerly await your reply. The best solutions come from open discussion of the issues at hand.

Sincerely,

Jeff Nurenberg