Letter to Woolsey regarding war and social spending

Dear Congresswoman Woolsey,
Our out of control war machine now consumes more than half of our discretionary Federal budget. It out strips Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid funding. This year Congress failed to create a commission to study our budget deficits so the President created his own National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
He then appointed former Senator Alan Simpson to head it up. Senator Simpson has described his mission as “saving the United States from insolvency by hacking away at entitlements,” reported James Ridgeway in Mother Jones. (March 2010) The budget deficit has nothing to do with these entitlements. Indeed it is borrowing against these trust funds that have allowed the deficit to grow so large.
People who attended your recent forum at the Redwoods reported that you believe that Social Security is safe from being cut back. While that might be true for folks over 60 that certainly is not the case for those younger. For them the retirement age has already been raised to 67 years, in itself a 13 percent cut in benefits.
It is time to stand for the working folk of this country and internationally. It is the rich who are avoiding fair taxation and who press hard for these wars of expanded control over natural resources. You are a great voice for peace in the House. You have made many speeches from the floor denouncing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. You have been a champion of the Employee Free Choice Act. Now you must stand for, protect and expand the only retirement savings most Americans have, their Social Security benefits.