I decided to write my State Senator, Harry Reid, again. I know it is futile, but I wanted to see the level of creativity that will be used to answer the questions I proposed. 

Dear Senator,

Anybody remotely cognizant observed the recent Senate vote which allowed your health care bill to proceed to a debate. Many of us recoiled at the impending servility that will be laid at every taxpayer’s doorstep. No doubt you have received all forms of correspondence from displeased Nevadans citing their animus over the federal government’s inability to control spending. Yet, as with most cases of hubris, politicians have, and continue to be, disinclined to address the concerns of their constituents. You are no different. Nevertheless I wish to engage you with the following concerns that have been fabricated from an anxious state of mind – I hope you grant some measure of consideration for my solicitude.

I am not sure if you are familiar with the economic conditions in your own state Senator, so let me purvey this information to you:

From the article: Number of Americans going hungry increases at Nevadaappeal.com

• “The report found that 12.4 percent of Nevadans had food insecurity between 2006 and 2008.”
• “The USDA said Monday that 5.7 percent of those who struggled for food experienced "very low food security," meaning household members reduced their food intake. In Nevada, that figure was 4.6 percent.”
• “(T)he escalating unemployment rate and the number of working-poor, lead us to believe that the number of people facing hunger will continue to rise significantly over the coming year," she said. "Research on previous economic recessions indicates that people who fall into the grips of poverty in a time of recession do not recover financially.”

From the news station KTVN channel 2 (CBS affiliate) in Reno, Nv.:

• 15% of Nevada households are struggling to put food on the table.
• 30% increase in Northern Nevada at the local food pantries this year.

From the article, Nevadans Go Hungry As Federal Aid Is Unused at KOLOTV.COM:

• "With unemployment rising and the economy tanking, more Americans are in need of assistance."
• "Budget cuts may make some of that help harder to find, but surprisingly some that's available is, in fact, underused."
• "At a taping Tuesday of our public affairs program It's Not Just Politics, Food Bank CEO Cherie Jamason says barely half of Nevadans who are eligible for federally funded food stamps are getting them."
• "We're leaving about $150 million dollars on the table in resources that you and I already paid for in our income taxes."

Unemployment in Nevada is above 13.4%.

Regarding your Health Care Bill:

1. The Reid bill still starts hiking taxes and cutting Medicare immediately, while the new spending programs are delayed until January 2014. That’s 6 months later than the last version of the bill, which seems like a strange way to go about addressing what we’re told is the most urgent crisis the country faces. Costs escalate dramatically in the later years, with spending of $196 billion in just 2019 alone. Without this gimmick, the fully phased in 10-year cost would be not the much-touted $848 billion is about $2.5 trillion.
2. The so-called “doctors fix” provision of repealing the so-called Sustainable Growth Rate mechanism of limiting Medicare payments to doctors is only included for 2010. So the Reid bill pretends Medicare payments to doctors will be cut by 23 percent in 2011 and stay at that low-level. That’s totally dishonest, because it would drive most doctors out of Medicare. That raises the real price-tag of the bill another $247 billion.
3. The bill includes yet another new entitlement program, a long-term care insurance program called the CLASS Act. This new federal entitlement program will supposedly reduced the deficit. That’s because the CBO counts the programs 10-year revenues of $72 billion as deficit reduction to help pay for the Reid bill, even though it will cost far more than it raises once benefits start being collected in the future. This is another new entitlement time-bomb, when Social Security and Medicare already have staggering multi-trillion dollar unfunded liabilities. But the Democrats and their supporters claim it reduces the deficit.

What is your response to this Senator? The benefits of your bill will not commence until 2014, but the taxes will be enforced starting in 2010, why is that? I see countless television ads citing your tremendous work for our state, but if that was the case, there would have been some visible evidence of your intercedence. Could you produce this evidence?

As I have written before, I am under no illusion to think that you will read this letter, much less give it any consideration. At best a subordinate will filter your letters, so perhaps this individual could supply the answers I have requisitioned. Lastly, could you point me to the section in the Constitution that requires the federal government to provide health insurance, as well as the governmental mandate requiring its citizenry to have health insurance? I would like to thank you for your time, and I look forward to your reply.

Most Respectfully,

Thomas Proulx