Dear Republican Members of Congress, and FOX News viewers,

The deficit and the national debt are not the same thing.

Under President George W. Bush you helped take a surplus and turned it into a record setting deficit of $1.85 trillion in his last budget year 2009; yes, 2009 is President Bush’s last budget year, just as 2017 will be President Obama’s last budget year. After five years under President Obama, the federal deficit has been cut in half to $672 billion, no thanks to your efforts to stop any improvement in the American economy.

We have record debt and deficits because you chose to fund two wars without raising taxes; we are still paying for those wars and you cannot lower the deficit, or decrease the debt, on the backs of those who answered the call to go to war; as much as you would like to, you cannot suddenly defund the VA or stop paying benefits for those who served.

You cannot reduce the deficit by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, which you know – or should know if you paid attention in Civics class – will not add one penny to either the federal deficit or the national debt; you cannot reduce the deficit by refusing to pay for bills we’ve already incurred.

For the record, you also cannot reduce the deficit by defunding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) – it is federal law; upheld by the United States Supreme Court and ratified by a majority of American voters in 2012; on top of all this, no matter how many times you vote to defund it (42 times to date) and no matter how much money you waste by holding those votes ($50 million at last count) such an effort will never be passed by the Senate or signed into law by the President.

Finally, saying you will “shut down the government” if Obamacare is not defunded is nothing short of domestic terrorism – FYI; the United States does not negotiate with terrorists, so stop trying to hold our country hostage to your demands; when you get a minute you should also probably look into how well shutting down the government worked out for the last Republican controlled House to do so.

Sincerely,

The Majority of the American People

P.S., yes we are the majority; 169 million registered voters – 55 million registered Republicans = 114 million.