An Open Letter to Speaker Pelosi

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

I just read an article in the Washington Post in which E. J. Dionne talks about how conservatives have demonized you at least in part because you are a woman. Dionne is clearly a fan of yours and seems to feel that you have been sorely aggrieved in the way Republicans have used you as a "political pinata."

(I'll pause here to note that when liberals savage conservatives, like Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich a few years back, it is just something that they need to expect because they are public figures. But when conservatives target liberals, the media cluck and shake their heads and are "troubled" by the decline in civility. I know that's not an original observation, but I want to make it anyway.)

But, back to Speaker Pelosi being persecuted by Republicans because she's a woman.

Hogwash.

That is just flat out ridiculous and someone needs to call you on it.

Speaker Pelosi, I was relieved and excited when you lost your majority and it had nothing to do with the sequence or kind of your chromosomes.

I was relieved because the policies you rammed through the House will hurt my family. The healthcare bill, for example. It was passed, and now we are finding out what's in it--just like you said! For my family, we are finding out that there is an increase in cost and decrease in benefits. We can no longer use our pre-tax dollars in our Flex account to pay for over the counter drugs. That has a big impact on our budget. And next year, the amount we can put away in our Flex account will be severely constrained and reduced. And that's just for starters! We have rationing and long lines to look forward to, and a future in which our healthcare decisions are made with all the care and efficiency we've come to expect from the DMV.

Remember the day healthcare was passed? Remember how you went on a victory stroll holding the giant gavel in front of all the protestors? Bad form, that. You could have celebrated your triumph a little more circumspectly, and not gloated. Instead of acknowledging that millions of Americans had deep concerns about the legislation, you rubbed in in our faces.

My family may lose free checking because of the financial reforms you pushed through. And let's talk about cap-and-trade. We live in the country because we wanted a better life and better schools for our children. We commute in to the city to work. A carbon tax would be devastating to our way of life, forcing us back into the city into a crowded apartment and sub-standard schools.

How about the tax cuts that you want to expire--you know, the tax cuts for the "rich" who make over $250,000? Some of those "rich" people pay my salary. In fact, all the clients who support my business are "rich." I have never made much money from poor people. The rich people support my family. If their tax rates go up, they'll have less discretionary income and the company for which I work might have some serious problems and I could lose my job. But I guess I shouldn't worry since you all extended unemployment benefits for two years. The problem is, Madame Speaker, I would rather work.

This is why I am delighted you lost your majority. I think your policies are detrimental to the country and my family's way of life.

It is your ideas I dislike, not the fact that you are a woman.