Faxed a letter to Senator Shelby

After reading Mark Tapscott's editorial entitled "Mr. Smith Has Returned to Washington and His Name is Tom Coburn," I wrote the following letter to my senator who voted to continue pork barrel spending. I have edited the web-based version a little bit to not publish some personal information that I sent him and added links to references I made in the letter.

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Honorable Richard Shelby:

I am quite shocked that you have chosen to vote against Senator Tom Coburn's amendments that he introduced on the Senate floor on Thursday, October 20 calling for previously approved earmarked funds to be redirected to Hurricane Katrina relief. How can you choose that it is wiser to spend my money on pork projects for other states while people are suffering in Louisiana, Mississippi, and here in Alabama? Pork barrel spending is out-of-control. You, as a Senator, have the responsibility to ensure that the money the Federal Government rips from my pocketbook is at least spent wisely. You set the budget. You determine spending priorities. It is outrageous that money is being spent to paint fish on planes, plant rainforests in Iowa, and build shelters for cats and dogs in Rhode Island while people are homeless and jobless.

I work three jobs to make a little over $XX,XXX/year to provide for my wife and our two adopted children. It tears me up every time I see how much money is confiscated from my check; money that I could use to pay off the adoption expenses, money that I could use to pay off our college loans, money that I could put aside for our retirement or our children's college. These are, in my opinion, better uses of my money than giving it to some peanut farmers in Dothan to use for their stupid parade and festival every year. How dare you take my hard-earned cash and just wastefully spend it. I am sick and tired of it. I am tired of working so hard to get and make a good life for me and my family only to have you and your colleagues in the Senate seize 25% of it from my paychecks and then mishandle the money that you get from me and other tax payers. How do you live with yourself? How do you wake up and in good conscience vote to spend money that way?

I think you need to stand up for some principles. You can tell Senator Ted Stevens when he threatens to leave the Senate if you don't vote for his "Bridge to Nowhere," that he is free to go. Are you going to be scared into submission from some guy in Alaska? When you stand on morals and principles, then you come out looking like the good guy, even if you lose the fight. Instead, you look like a whipped little boy, cow-towing to people bigger and stronger than you. Guess what? I don't want a wimp for a Senator representing me. I don't want a Senator who thinks that it is better to go with the flow than rock the boat when deciding how to spend my money. I certainly hope you begin to take your role as a Senator more seriously and that you become a combatant of the average guy just trying to get by.

Sincerely,

Randall S. Bowman