This letter was written by a man in East Texas as an open letter toSenator Obama. He really does exist and says anyone can email hisletter around, just don't change it. If you know someone who holds tothe theory that the rich have life easy and need to be taxed moresend it to them. This man tells it like it is!*************Mr. Obama,
Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe theplumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because hedared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things toyou myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I alreadyhave started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introducemyself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54 year oldhigh school graduate. I didn't go to college like you, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 yearsago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at atime when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from thecrash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from thegovernment, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from mysister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrapetogether a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. Mybusinesses did not start as a result of privilege. They are theresult of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, selfreliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From thevery start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan afull time job. I couldn't afford a backhoe the first few years(something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper hadto dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job withhand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck formy water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year)old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill thedeeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drillingwells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs.Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if Iwould have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on myincome taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back(with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. Igot behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behindthe second time... $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back(each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Ofcourse, the personal stress endured through these experiences andyears is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now tomemorialize it all.I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being themost competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2years along the way, I hired another full time employee for thedrilling business so that we could provide full time water well pumpservice as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, Ibought a water well screen service machine from a friend, startingbusiness # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 tobuild a new, higher production, computer controlled screen servicemachine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work outfor 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit ofany added income from the new machine. No government program wasthere to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as Ilay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay mybills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine workingproperly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texanin the screen service business.2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for$250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the supportequipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This providedanother 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple ofyears not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that wouldbankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everythingI owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build abusiness.A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a newkind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water welldrill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00),building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national waterwell convention to show it off. Customers immediately started comingout of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I haddepleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me abusiness loan to start production of the new pumps. With severaldeposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finallystarted applying for as many credit card as I could find and tookcash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00(including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this3rd business going.Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effortto start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and Ihad to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machinefrom an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in sixmonths). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made theparamount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there wereplenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediatelycreated another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models inthe first year suffered from quality issues due to the poorworkmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (anotherEast Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repaircustomers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind theproduct, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financedme (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improvingand refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and thecompany, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers'product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time Icontinued to manage a growing water well business that was nowoperating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, thescreen service business continued to grow. No government programswere there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I didn't expect any,nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen tosit around waiting for the government to help me.Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, mycombined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute$5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 monthsago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlledmachining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machineshop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we canbetter manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Ofcourse, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies aswell. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 moreshould develop out of it in the next few months. This should workout, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the otherprofessional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed ourcountrys' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgageloan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation ofloaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers couldget mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get abusiness loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were workingwith Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make surethat unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, andeven no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal,Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualifiedborrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I waspaying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used toprovide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobsfor more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turningalmost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to growthem, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally madeenough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and nowthe value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you andyour ilk have perpetrated on our country.You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm theguy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting andfighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead.I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than adozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating moreand more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, andwould not demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself.I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it themost" that you believe should be taxed more to provide incomeredistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled,sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want tocharacterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege andwho needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who havebought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as Iresent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance theirpolitical career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy intoyour liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government fortheir hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals aresucceeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort betweenthe predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs inthe public school systems across our land.What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great bypeople who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance,self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personalbetterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around theconcept that success was in reach of every able bodied American whowould strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace thatculture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist paththat has brought country after country ultimately to bitter andunremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the mediaand school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating aculture of can-do across America as you do cultivating yourentitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing theconviction that they can elevate themselves through personalbetterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, whenpeople embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on suchideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevatinginstead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need forliberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would notneed you if the country was convinced that problem solving was bestleft with individuals instead of the government. You and all yourliberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependentclass in our country. It is the very business of liberals to createan ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is thatyou, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax meto take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need mymoney if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses andapply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quitlooking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds ofthem over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to workon time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. Peoplewho actually tell me that they would do more if I just would firstpay them more. People who take off work to sit in government officesto apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how thingswould have turned out for them if they had spent that time earningmoney and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes fromyour entitlement mentality culture.Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrongagain. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your incomehas been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoringthe years you started running for office - can youpronounce "politically motivated"), you averaged less than 1%annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% ofhis annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years.Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, justas long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won'tsay what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but thepercentage is several times more than you and Joe Biden. combined(don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everythingthat is wrong with our country. You represent the culture ofgovernment dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentalityinstead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful toreward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of openmindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may presideover the final transformation of America from being the greatest andmost self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country ofwhiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solvetheir problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on thedecline. All countries that, because of liberal socialisticmentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.God help us...Cory Millerjust a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americansused to be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American...
http://www.cmillerdrilling.com
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