{"id":605,"date":"2011-10-25T12:03:19","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T16:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/?p=605"},"modified":"2011-10-29T13:10:57","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T17:10:57","slug":"scott-brown-why-do-you-hate-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/2011\/10\/25\/scott-brown-why-do-you-hate-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Brown, why do you hate America?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nRecently the Democrats introduced a bill to support teachers, police, and firefighters. It’s really short, so you should read it for yourself here<\/a>. This law would help out the poorest people in the country. And do you know who they are? Children. Children are the largest demographic living in poverty in America today. They are not lazy. They are not riding welfare. They didn’t lose their jobs. They are children<\/i>. And this law would help children<\/i>.\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd who would pay? According to this bill, only people earning over<\/i> a million dollars a year. And the tax would only apply to the monies made over<\/i> a million dollars. Joe Biden explains<\/a> how easy the math is. If you’re only making $999,999 this year, don’t worry. You wouldn’t pay a cent to fund these teachers and first-responders. And if you do make more than a million dollars, you’d only see an increase of one half of one percent. That’s half a penny per dollar over a million. The average income of the people who would pay this surtax is 3 million dollars; they’d pay on average $500. That’s enough for 400,000 teachers, 18,000 police, and 7,000 firefighters. I only wish<\/i> I could pay this tax!\n<\/p>\n

\nBut no one will. It got voted down, pretty unilaterally according to party lines in the Senate. The New York Times posted the tally here<\/a>. All blue and independent voted yes; all red (and two blue!) voted no. Because I’m so baffled, I decided to write my senator to ask what he was thinking. I hope you<\/b> will ask your senators why they think half a penny for every dollar over a million isn’t worth the stability and safety of our families and children. If you live in Massachusetts, please contact Scott Brown<\/b> through his website<\/a> or on the phone, (617) 565-3170.\n<\/p>\n

\nDear Senator Brown,<\/p>\n

I am troubled by your recent vote against S.1723: Teachers and First Responders Back to Work Act of 2011. Please explain why you chose to cut jobs that serve obvious public good, promote American innovation and prosperity, and keep families and children safe. Teachers, police, and firefighters from the poorest communities will lose their jobs first because the poorest communities are those least able to support their salaries. Your vote is strictly un-American and it clearly acts against the best interests of Massachusetts’ citizens.<\/p>\n

Please explain why you turned on American families and children, Senator Brown. Why did you deny poor American children access to adequate education; why did you deny working American families continued public safety? As one of your constituents, I believe you should make the reasons for your action clear.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,
\nJoshua Reyes
\nA concerned citizen\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please, leave a comment<\/b> if you contacted your senator!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently the Democrats introduced a bill to support teachers, police, and firefighters. It’s really short, so you should read it for yourself here. This law would help out the poorest people in the country. And do you know who they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,96,246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-politics","category-society"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":623,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605\/revisions\/623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/jreyes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}