Letter to President Obama

Everyone needs to pay their taxes. I agree with President Obama that our current financial crisis requires that we restore liquidity, stabilize housing prices, and create jobs. The costs will be staggering, but not fixing the problem will be far more costly. There are many other costly, critical needs… education, affordable healthcare, etc. The challenge is unprecedented, because the Bush Administration and Republican Party neglected the needs of the country. Even worse, their “unfettered free market” policies resulted in this financial crisis.

So now we need to find ways to pay for fixing the crisis, such as raising the tax rate from 35% to39% on citizens making over $250 thousand annually. Republicans claim that will hurt owners of small businesses, and therefore, hurt the economy. The Obama administration needs to debunk this argument factually with real examples. For example, what is the median income of small business owners? Let’s say they pay themselves $500 thousand, many times more than the average American worker and many times more than their own employees. The additional 4% tax increase is $20,000., leaving $480,000 …. still many times more than the average American worker and many times more than their own employees. How will that hurt the company and the economy?

But there is also a dirty little secret. Many small business owners claim personal expenses (vacations, private school tuition, cars, restaurants, theater tickets, and much, much more) as deductions because IRS rarely audits small business returns. These are not legitimate deductions and is simply tax cheating. Whether intentional or not, the IRS had been badly understaffed under the Bush administration and IRS did not make small business returns a priority. Under Obama, IRS not only needs to go after offshore tax cheats, but also small business cheats. There’s a lot of uncollected tax revenue out there!

The Republicans talk about taxes as though they were the Bubonic Plague or the Ebola Virus. Democrats need to take a more aggressive response. Yes, talking about why we should all pay our fair share may be politically risky. But, the public may respond more favorable by showing how much cheating has gone on. After all, when your neighbor cheats, you wind up paying some his/her share of the costs of government. We can restore the economic health of the country if every one is a responsible citizen. Yes we can!

MORE THAN FOUR QUESTIONS

Having spoken with Jewish and non-Jewish Americans about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and having read about attitudes of Jewish Israelis, I was very surprised to find how strong the disagreement is between two bodies of thought. Recognizing that the standard bell-shaped curve still applies and that some opinions are the result of distorted media coverage and anti-Semitism, at the risk of over simplification, they seem to be divided over one central issue:

IS THE THREAT TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION, AMERICA, AND ISRAEL FROM RADICAL, MILITANT MUSLIMS REAL AND SERIOUS?

The crux of the issue is that no one seems to really know, despite vitriolic statements and despicable, horrific acts from radical, militant Muslims.

From that one issue stems the following additional questions:
· Is the Muslim end game the destruction of the State of Israel?
· Is Israel the first line of defense in the global war with militant Islam…. The canary in the coal mine?
· Is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict a proxy war between the US and Muslim countries like Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia?
· Are the US and Israeli governments working to strengthen, maintain, or weaken Israel’s security?
· Do moderate Muslims support Israel’s right to exist?
· What are moderate Muslims doing to prevent the spread of radical Islam and the attacks on US interests, Israel, and those countries, Arab and non-Arab, whose governments are viewed as a threat to the spread of radical Islam?
· What concessions should Israel make for peace?
· Will Muslims honor agreements with infidels?
· Is the intifada a resistance movement or a propaganda act to facilitate the end-game strategy?
· Is Israel doing what is necessary to establish a level of security against homicide bombers and rocket attacks or is Israel oppressing Palestinians?
· And others that I have not yet thought of……

Israel's enemies are relentless. Our top priority in this country must be to win the PR war. Whether it is AIPAC's work with American lawmakers, Laurie Moore's videos for the Christian community, Bob Kunst's public protests, Ted Belman's writings, Dr. Grobman's and Tabbi Davoodi's work with young Jewish people in the crosshairs of the propaganda of Islamic Student Centers and professors of Islamic studies, funded by Wahabi sect Saudis, Buddy Macy's organizing an email campaign to keep David Appletree at the watchtower of Facebook... and others I am not aware of ... there is no more important work than to combat the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda coming from all directions. Alek Szlam and I believe that these efforts can be even more effective by bringing an Internet based social network as a platform to aggregate and distribute the collective work of people like you to make it possible for millions of people to ensure that the truth is not drowned out by our enemies. We need to work more closely together now than ever. If not now, when? How much greater of a threat to Israel, America, and Western civilization is needed before we act together?