So I kind of felt like I wanted to share what I’ve written to my U.S. congressional representative. If I ever get a response from said congressman, I’ll let you all know.
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January 8, 2025
Dear Representative Huizenga,
In your email newsletter of December 24, 2024, you expressed concern over our nation’s debt and pointed to the proposed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) as playing a potentially helpful role in tackling this issue. As a resident of the Michigan district you represent, I want to say that I very much agree that fiscal responsibility is important. However, I am skeptical about the role of DOGE and especially the role of the billionaire appointed to lead it, Elon Musk. This man does not care about the best interests of our nation.
While it might make a nice sound bite to say we need to run the government more like a business, a government exists to serve and protect the people while a business exists to make a profit for the shareholders. When Musk and his ilk try to run government as a business, who do you think they will understand to be the shareholders? It won’t be the people. It will be billionaires like themselves and the corporations they own.
Musk has already talked about the sacrifices and hardship the American people will have to suffer as a result of the cuts he thinks should be made. Is Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, willing to suffer too? Because all I hear is talk of more tax cuts for the wealthy. That doesn’t sound like suffering to me. Musk himself has called for abolishing the CFPB, which protects consumers. In other words, he wants deregulation so he can get richer by taking advantage of consumers without worrying about accountability. Musk’s morals and ethics are also a concern, including his public support of neo-Nazi groups, apparent failure to follow security reporting rules at SpaceX, and the blatant censorship of critics on his X platform which has turned it into nothing but a propaganda tool. This is all just the tip of the ice berg.
Please do not be fooled by Musk and his fellow billionaires. They don’t care about governmental fiscal responsibility. They want to make sure the system works to their advantage so they can line their pockets.
As my Congressional representative, I hope you will remember that government is supposed to be for the benefit of the people as a whole and not just the rich. I dream of a government that cannot only govern responsibly but with compassion for everyone. Services such as the USPS, medicare, and social security, to name just a few, should be strengthened and not facing cuts. Strong health care and educational systems available to all should be priorities for our nation. They are absolutely critical to our future strength as a country. It’s a disgrace that we are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have universal health care. Fiscally responsibly governance would not be cutting vital services. Nor would it be extending tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy. Fiscally responsible governance would be finally having billionaires like Musk paying their fair share.
Thank you,
Rev. Kenneth Arthur