Dear Senator, I am in receipt of your fund raising request, but will not be

[BR_Parkway]

donating at this time.

You see, after looking at all of the health care insurance reforms being debated on the Hill, I've realized that I'll be legally forced to purchase an unaffordable policy from a for-profit company under penalty of fines or jail - without the benefit of a public option or opportunity to purchase into Medicare.

Therefore I feel it to be in my best interests now to begin setting aside money to cover that so that I'm not eating cat food in my old age. Obviously this really cuts into my budget for such frivolous things as giving money to politicians who are supposed to represent my interests but wind up selling out to the corporations. I've seen that one too many times over the years not to know the return on investment is zero.

Thank you for your time,



(PS)I reserve to myself the right to extend and revise my remarks on this to donate the cash once ear marked for you to be taken from savings and given to your primary challenger should he/she convince me that they may actually enact legislation that makes it so that I don't have to worry about not being able to afford to live. I will however make the donation to them in your name, it's only fair that you get the credit.

[maryinthemorn]

1. I sent mine back in the free postage envelop they sent. But

your memo is great.

[Love Bug]

2. Brilliant!

I may have to borrow that come election time...

[OKNancy]

3. I'm saving this too.

K and R

[eridani]

4. My version--everyone should develop one asap

This is a general note for all organizations and legislators who have supported making me a second class citizen with age discrimination written into health care "reform" legislation, which will mandate the purchase of private insurance for which 1 will have to pay twice as much because of my age, or more if the Senate gets its way.

First we got a watered down "public option" which was neither public nor an option, since it was redesigned so that it was expected to be more expensive than private insurance. Then we got Medicare buy-in for those over 55, but only for people whose employers did not provide insurance for employees and retirees. Great—my former employer cancelled the plan I was on and my doctor is not on the new preferred provider list, and I can’t even buy into Medicare. Then that smarmy jackass Liebermann says that even the buy-in is unacceptable.

That leaves just mandatory (and outrageously expensive) insurance in current proposals amounts to legislatively enacting a permanent jobless recession/recovery. That is because huge amounts of everyone's otherwise discretionary income will be diverted from buying real products to subsidize the totally unproductive part of the economy that is the private insurance industry. Just in case you hadn’t noticed, the Basic Plan (the only one eligible for subsidy) is really shitty underinsurance which will not pay a dime for my ongoing medical expenses.

Congress, the president and many political and issue organizations seem almost to be from another planet when they talk about "affordable choices." To them it seems to mean that if income minus food minus rent/mortgage/utilities minus transportation minus health insurance costs equals a number slightly greater than zero-VOILA! Affordability! I've used the online calculator to figure out what 1 will have to pay under the House bill which includes both the subsidies and the age penalty. I'm not going to be homeless or starve, and may even be able to pay medical bills. 1 just won't be able to buy much else. And the Senate bill is likely to be far worse.

1 will no longer be able to support most of my usual causes financially, not because of disagreement about this one issue, but simply because the money will no longer be there. I'm still available for volunteering, though. Unless 1 wind up having to come out of retirement and start competing with families in their child-raising years in the job market just to pay my medical bills.

[KarenS]

5. K&R ~ Saving this !! n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

6. See? That was MUCH nicer than

what I wrote to Feinstein when her office made the mistake of sending me a fundraising letter RIGHT AFTER she voted "yes" on the IWR. For some reason, they've never sent me another fundraising letter. }(