Contact your Senator and urge them to extend unemployment!

Holding the only income hostage that millions of Americans have to pay bills, buy food, and keep their homes from getting foreclosed on is abhorrent. Holding it hostage for tax breaks for the rich is especially so.

I e-mail Senator Mitch McConnell today. You should contact your senator as well. Here is my letter should you need any ideas:

Senator McConnell,

I cannot sit by any longer. I have watched you transform from a longstanding veteran Senator, getting many things done for Kentucky, despite my not agreeing with your politics, to someone who cannot and will not do anything save try to do anything you can to ensure President Obama is a one-term President. This is abhorrent.

While thousands of Kentuckians remain unemployed, how can you hold unemployment hostage? Kentucky isn’t going to recover from the recession overnight, nor will enough jobs be created to lower unemployment to acceptable levels, overnight. The most immediate way to help Kentucky is to extend unemployment while the unemployed continue to search for jobs.

I was lucky, Mr. McConnell. I found a job–a job doing (redacted) during night shift. I graduated from Western Kentucky University in May with degrees in English and political science. I am severely under-employed for my qualifications, but I am lucky in that I am bringing money home. My mother has not been so fortunate.

Did these tax cuts originally do anything to help the economy and create jobs? No, they didn’t. They simply further contributed to the profits made by companies who later crashed our economy. Now millions are jobless, homeless, and hungry, and you look to give further advantage to those who need your help the least?

Senator, you represent ALL Kentuckians. I ask that you remember the jobless, the poor, and the downtrodden of your constituency when you hold unemployment hostage for continuing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

I am willing to pay higher taxes, Senator, if that helps assist the US to recover from this recession. I can sacrifice for the greater good–that is what being an American, a Kentuckian, and a good neighbor is all about. If the top 3% earners are decent people, they will be willing to do the same.

Please do not hold the unemployment hostage. Do the right thing. Extend unemployment. Do not make the desperation of millions a weapon in the chamber.

Sincerely,

Brittany-Ann Wick