Letter to the Editor: Consider Your Constituents

Dear Congressman,

I am asking you to seriously consider your constituents as you work on this new tax bill. It appears to every average citizen that this tax bill is one that only satisfies your wealthy donors. There is really nothing in this awful piece of legislation that helps the average working person. This bill is like a good pickpocket. You are dangling new tax breaks while taking away every useful deduction. It is unconscionable that you are taking away deductions for medical bills, catastrophic events, student loans, classroom teachers, while raising taxes on the poorest of the poor and killing healthcare. This is a grab bag of goodies for the wealthy – tax breaks for golf course owners, private jets, estate taxes, etc. The president said that he will get nothing from this new law. I don’t personally know anyone else who owns multiple golf courses, has his own private plane, and will leave a huge estate except the president.

I am also extremely concerned about all the other legislation that you are hiding in this bill. You are catering to religious extremists by allowing churches to be politically active and still keep their tax exemptions. You also have something about abortions and who knows what else in this 478-page bill. I have a strong hunch that every senator who signed on to this bill received some kind of present (or what we previously called pork). To try to pass something so huge and so quickly is careless, reckless and dishonest. I am asking you to put the country ahead of the wealthy class.

Colleen Malmen

Baileys Harbor, Wis.