An Open Letter to George W. Bush, 3/10/01

Dear Mr. President: Once upon a time, there was a poor man who struggled to take care of his family through some very difficult times. They were so hard up, the children had to get jobs to help support the family instead of going to college. They could only afford to live in a very dangerous part of town, and even then, they were still behind on their rent and in danger of being evicted. One day, they won a million dollars in a lottery. The man was overjoyed. Now he could take care of all his family's needs, and they would still have a lot left over for some well deserved luxuries. First, he bought all his children new cars, so they could get to their jobs more easily. Then, he increased the security of his home by putting an iron fence around his house, and iron bars on the windows, and by installing a very good alarm system. Finally, he paid off all the back rent that they owed. After taking care of all these things, he took his family on a long wonderful vacation. They did all the things they'd always dreamed of. When they got back, life was much easier for a long time, because of the kids' new cars and the new feeling of safety and the rent being paid up. Plus, they still had some money left over for emergencies. However, this state of affairs did not last long. Eventually, the family began falling behind again. The cars wore down and needed repairs. One of the kids was laid off. Burglars got past the fence and into the house one weekend. Soon, the emergency money was gone, and the family began falling behind on their rent again. This time, there were no lottery winnings to save them; they were evicted and ended up homeless. At the homeless shelter, the man poured out his troubles to a friend, who replied, "I don't understand. You had a million dollars! Why didn't you invest it in things that would really improve your life permanently, instead of just patching up your life as it was and then wasting the rest of the money? Instead of just making it easier for your kids to get to their jobs, why didn't you allow them to quit their jobs for a while and go to college? That way, they could have gotten much better jobs once they got degrees. Instead of just making your house safer and paying up the back rent you owed, why didn't you buy a new home in a better neighborhood?" The man was stunned. He had honestly never thought of doing these things. He had been poor so long that he didn't even think about investing the lottery money in a really radical way. He'd been just scraping by for so long, he only thought of how the money could help him scrape by much more easily. Because he didn't have the vision to see beyond the problems he struggled with day to day, he lost his chance to permanently solve many of those problems. Mr. President, in your Address to Congress a couple of weeks ago, you spent a lot of time discussing what we should do with the projected surplus. To your great credit, you began your speech by saying that "Year after year in Washington, budget debates seem to come down to an old, tired argument: on one side, those who want more government, regardless of the cost; on the other, those who want less government, regardless of the need. We should leave those arguments to the last century and chart a different course." While I still don't like the way you talked about "government", I was happy to see that you were willing to debate the issue of what to do with the projected surplus in terms of real costs and needs, rather than an automatic bias towards one philosophy or the other. I'd like to enter into that debate with you briefly, right now. In the remainder of your speech, you made it pretty clear that you didn't think our needs as a nation were very great. That is, you didn't think of us as the poor man who suddenly came into a lot of money. Instead, you seemed to portray us as a well-to-do man with no really pressing needs who comes into money and can afford to spend it on luxuries. Although you did list many areas where you wanted to increase spending, all of the increases together didn't add up to much at all when compared to the tax cut that you would like to give us. You said, "We have funded our priorities. We paid down all the available debt. We have prepared for contingencies. And we still have money left over." But that is exactly what the poor man in my story thought. You said, "the growing surplus exists because taxes are too high, and government is charging more than it needs", but could it be that we have a surplus because we just haven't been spending enough to maintain our infrastructure in this country? I know we disagree about these two questions, so let me just present three pieces of evidence for my position: 1. Our infant mortality rate and average life expectancy rank near the bottom among all industrialized nations. 2. Our incarceration rate is the highest among all industrialized nations. 3. One out of every five children in this country lives below the poverty level. Mr. President, I could list many more such items, but in fact, any one of them is enough to convince me that we have some serious problems in this country. Can it possibly be true that "we have funded our priorities" when stuff like this is still happening? I can't believe that any great and moral nation could feel content when so many of its people are suffering so seriously. So I don't think we're a well-to-do man who has come into some money he really doesn't need. Instead, we are the poor man in my story, with lots of serious needs, but a chance to significantly improve his life, if he only has the vision to see beyond his day-to-day circumstances. As we debate this issue, let's not get caught in the trap of thinking, like the poor man, that we only need to patch up a few holes in our life and we'll be fine. There are major problems in our country; let's not squander our chance to really fix them. Respectfully yours, Freeman Ng