Writing to Politicians actually works!

Grant's 1st Bad-Donkey award might be retracted after Representative Larsen turns out to be pretty cool...

As you might know, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) from Whatcom County earned my Bad-Donkey of the Month award last week.

In that post, I urged everyone to write to Rep. Larsen and tell him your disappointment in his vote to repeal the Estate Tax, thereby giving our generation trillions of dollar in debt to figure out. (My idea... we all sell one kidney to an old person in the next decade. In turn, our children will sell us their kidneys. It's like the circle of life... for those in crushing national debt).

So, I'm not sure how many of you actually wrote to Rep. Larsen, but I did. You can see my first letter here.

Now, I've written to a lot of politicians in my time, and most of the time I think their intern responds and simply cuts and pastes whatever pre-written comment the politician has written for each problem. At first, Rick was no different:

Thanks for your e-mail concerning my votes for the bankruptcy bill and the estate tax repeal. I never like disagreeing with close friends and supporters, but the policy merits of each bill convinced me to vote yes. Below is a detailed explanation of my votes. I know that we may disagree, but I hope that you will not condemn me for two votes. I now we still agree on 95% of all other issues.

Rick

Below that was about a three page discussion the bankruptcy bill and, finally, a small section about the estate tax. Of course, I didn't write to him about the bankruptcy bill, only the estate tax. Here was his response:

Explanation on Estate Tax vote: (Please note last paragraph)

Rick Larsen Votes to Repeal Estate Tax Constituents urge for repeal in order to pass family-owned businesses on to next generation and create local jobs.

Washington, D.C. - Today Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) will vote to repeal the estate tax citing concerns about the burden the tax places on family-owned small businesses.

"The estate tax is hitting middle class small business owners in the Northwest, and that is having a negative impact on jobs in our communities," said Larsen.

Larsen cited several family-owned small businesses that would be hit hard by the estate tax. Gigi Burke, Vice President of Crown Distributing, employs 140 people in Arlington, Washington. As the fourth generation owner of the business, Ms. Burke shared her concerns about selling the family business if her parents passed away. "Estate taxes or a forced sale would have a huge negative impact on our family, each of our employees and the community," she said.

Leo Roozen, President of Washington Bulb Company, Inc. in Mount Vernon, Washington, noted that most of his company?s assets are tied up in capital and not cash. "We cannot pay estate taxes with tractors, trucks and greenhouses," Roozen said. As a result, to Roozen, paying the estate tax means selling the business.

Larsen does caution that future support of a total repeal of the estate tax will become increasingly difficult because of long term federal deficits. "The Bush Administration is displaying no real fiscal responsibility. The prospect of future large deficits will mean a greater impact on the economic growth than the lack of a full estate tax repeal."

Pretty much your standard press release. I wasn't satisfied, so I wrote back:

Rep. Larsen-

Thank you for your response. However, my email was only regarding your vote to repeal the estate tax. While I do disagree with your vote on the bankruptcy bill, I believe there is room for debate and that there should not have been a straight party vote on such a bill.

However, I do not believe that any Democrat should be voting to repeal the estate tax. I find the reasoning you gave in your response email for voting for such a repeal to be weak and unconvincing. There are other less extreme measures which could have been taken to exempt the miniscule number of small businesses and family farms from a situation which would force them to sell their assets to pay for such a tax.

Thank you,
Grant

I assumed I would not hear a response. But, I was pleasantly surprise when this arrived minutes after I sent my email:

Thanks Grant,

Let's keep talking about the Estate Tax issue. As my last paragraph stated, I will not support future full repeal in the future given the economic realities of the federal deficit.

Rick

Wow... is he really writing back to me? Doesn't seem like any intern would have the guts to continue a conversation in his name. I had to take the opportunity to display my dissatisfaction one last time, but I was starting to like Rick again:

Rep. Larsen-

Thanks so much for your effort to reach out and discuss this issue. It is very impressive and definitely appreciated.

While I believe you when you state that you do not want a full repeal of the estate tax, my understanding of this issue is that this is the beginning of addressing the "sunset provisions" established in the Bush Administrations original tax cutting policies. While you may not have voted explicitly for the full repeal of the estate tax, you have certainly voted to weaken this fiscally intelligent and social responsible tax to the point of its eventual death (pardon the pun). (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48025-2005Apr12.html), (http://www.cbpp.org/5-25-00tax.htm)

While I understand that the Democrats have very little power right now, and cannot seriously propose their own legislation, there are certainly other ways to address the extremely small number of family farms and small businesses which are adversely affected by the estate tax.

I wished you would have voted against this bill and urged a financially responsible bill or policy decision to help these minuscule number of small farms and businesses avoid what would truly be unjust without hoisting billions, actually trillions, of dollars of debt onto my generation.

With that being said, your willingness for discussion and your openness has been very impressive and I sincerely thank you. While I will still remain very disappointed by your vote to repeal the estate tax, the fact that you wanted to continue a dialogue and wanted to hear my opinion has really helped me feel better about you representing Washington state and the Democratic Party.

Thank you,
Grant

But, Rick didn't stop there. It turns out, I think he actually likes speaking to the public!

Thanks Grant,

I really appreciate your willingness to discuss my position. Please know that I will reconsider my position if the votes comes up in the future.

Have a good weekend.

Rick

So Rick, you've proved yourself to be quite the good guy. While your vote still pissed me off, I feel a lot better about you now.

And what did we learn today, betterdonkeys?

Writing to your politicians actually works!

Or, at least, it puts them on notice that you and the issues you believe in, are watching!

Maybe I'll start calling out more bad-donkeys and they'll start to change their minds. Dude who stole my parking spot today.. bad-donkey. Lieberman.. bad-donkey. Karl Rove... oh wait, he's just an ass.