Dear editor:

Michigan’s 6th District Congressman, Fred Upton, came through our area on his “listening” tour last week. I applaud him for taking the time to come into our communities and listen to our concerns. I did not get a chance to express my concerns as there was not enough time for everyone, including myself, to be heard.  I would like to share my thoughts to the congressman in an open letter:

Representative Upton,

Thank you for coming to listen to us, your constituents. It seems the over-riding issue in Washington these days is the budget and the fight over spending cuts. I understand and share your party’s concerns over the ballooning deficit. Certainly, something has to be done to deal with this issue.

I do, however, believe that the Republican proposal leaves out of the equation the areas that can have the biggest impact on our deficit, and ultimately, our debt.

No. 1, not a single Republican is willing to talk about the revenue side of the equation, and on the spending side it is simply not possible to make significant changes without considering Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and defense. Currently, more than 60 percent of our budget is dedicated to these programs, and another 6 percent is out of our control because it is for interest on the debt. That means all of the proposed cuts are coming from less than 35 percent of our budget.

You said you wanted to listen to your constituents on this tour, so listen to this. The budget cuts proposed by the Republicans hurt us, your constituents. Independent analysis has predicted the plan would cost our country 700,000 to 1,000,000 jobs.

Listen to the cuts. Included in that 35 percent of the budget that you have proposed to slash are Pell grants that many of the working families in your district depend on to help pay for their children’s college; the Head Start program that has helped so many of our children get ready for school; Title 1 funding, which helps our schools provide for the most needy students; WIC (Women, Infants and Children), which provides low-income infants with healthy food; community health centers and family planning agencies, which benefit so many without health insurance; and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), which ensures we have clean air to breathe and safe water to drink. All of these programs are on the cutting block.

Listen to this. Once, on a mission trip to San Francisco, I watched college students working in a neighborhood center for some of the poorest of the poor. They were making a difference in those people’s lives and earning money for college at the same time through a program called AmeriCorps. Under the Republican plan, AmeriCorps would be completely eliminated.

Listen to this. In Niles, we have a volunteer funded through VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) who is the coordinator for our new community garden program. He has almost single-handedly created an incredibly successful program, which has put community gardens in our neighborhoods and teaches our urban residents how to grow their own food, something most never thought they would be able to do. Under the budget you supported, VISTA and our volunteer’s stipend would be eliminated.

Listen. Niles Community Gardens also benefited from a small amount of “seed” money from a federal program called Community Development Block Grants. These provide funds to cities with a large amount of low to moderate income residents. Other places Niles has used this money include funding the Ferry Street Resource Center, which provides invaluable help in one of our most needy neighborhoods, improvements to roads and sidewalks, a new park and a homeowner improvement program for low-income residents. Under the Republican proposal this program would be cut more than 60 percent.

Listen to the predicted 700,000-plus Americans who would be newly unemployed under the Republican plan.

I tell you all this because I want to make you understand the consequences for your constituents. Listen. My mother-in-law likes to say that if you have never had to worry about paying the light bill, you just don’t understand what it is like. I am hoping that, even though you have never had to worry about money, you can understand what it is like for those who do worry about having to pay the bills. Your cuts include the low-income heating assistance program. I know that when you are in the halls of Congress, where fully 50 percent of your fellow congressmen are millionaires like yourself, it may seem hard to relate to the programs I am talking about. I don’t imagine you or many of your colleagues have had to worry about getting Pell grants or home heating assistance.

Listen. Here, in the rest of the country, fewer than 1 percent of us are millionaires, so we do worry.

I believe there are two bold moves you can make. Both will cause the scorn of your fellow Republicans, but I like to think you are above worrying about that and want to do what is best for us, the other 99 percent.

First, you can assert that if there are to be cuts, defense cannot be off limits and we must talk about Social Security reform.

Second, not considering the revenue side is irresponsible. The cost of extending the Bush era tax cuts, which you voted to do last December, is more than five times the total of your proposed drastic spending cuts. Just eliminating the tax cut on those making more than $250,000 and lowering the estate tax exemption cap from 5 million to 1 million would more than cover all the cuts I have laid out above.

So, Mr. Congressman, what will it be? Will you continue to look after the narrow interests of the privileged such as yourself, or will you stand up for us, the other 99 percent?

I am sorry I didn’t get a chance to tell you this in person, but I am glad you are listening.

Sincerely,

Dan Vandenheede

Niles