Letter to Claudia Tenney, my Congressional Rep, about the vile GOP budget and Tyranny

hoping to inspire you to contact yours. Speak out!

To: Rep. Claudia Tenney NY24

2230 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

The GOP budget is unacceptable because it attacks the programs your constituents need, in order to provide tax cuts and other advantages to billionaires/corporations they don’t need. It is obscene.

I am writing this actual letter and sending it via OUR US Postal Service to demand that all attempts to privatize it, and OUR national weather service, cease immediately. Such an attempt is theft from the American people. Privatization does not improve anything for anyone but those few owners who will make money from it. Have you noticed how most people, of every political party, are angry at the for-profit corporations we are forced, by default, to deal with, either as customers or employees?

I want to begin by calling bs on the “small government v big government” rhetoric. It misses the point. It’s not the “size” that matters. The issue is whether it is good government, in other words, does it help the American people?

The reason we love our postal service and our weather service is that those truly do treat us as equal. Consider my rural county that has less than twenty thousand people. We have ten post offices. That is because when thinking about post offices, because it is a SERVICE the attitude is: all Americans deserve a post office close by where they live. The attitude of a BUSINESS is: with such a small population, we only need one or two because hiring all those people to work there, maintaining those buildings etc is unprofitable, and from that perspective “inefficient.”

The real question is, “inefficient for whom?” It is highly efficient for me to have a post office on my way to work, for example. Don’t I deserve to have anything that helps me? Am I person with intrinsic value or a person whose value is determined by how much I enrich someone else?

Why rural people vote overwhelmingly for the GOP that champions privatization is beyond me, because privatization doesn’t actually benefit people in rural communities which tend to be low income and sparsely populated.

Local weather is vital information to farmers, as well as everybody else who lives here. When a storm is coming, we need to prepare because of the possibility of power outrages or impassable roads. Whether the storm rolls in at 7am or noon makes a big difference when you have to arrive at work by 8am, and our US Weather Service treats all our concerns as equally valid, even if we’re poor, or even if we live in a remote area. We are not asked to pay more for a special local forecast. We are not asked to pay anything, just as we aren’t asked whether we have a “home invasion policy” when we call 911.

Here’s an historical example that affected the ancestors of many of your constituents that most may not be aware of – how it is we got electric service here. SPOILER ALERT: it was because of FDR and the New Deal.

The new technology, electricity, was at the time under the total control of for-profit corporations. As a result people in cities had electric lights while people in rural areas were still using oil lamps. That is because it was “inefficient” – meaning “unprofitable” to install the infrastructure needed for electric service where the population was low and not concentrated in a small area. By the business logic, they would have had to charge rates so high in order for it to be profitable, that no one could have afforded it – especially during a depression caused in the first place by the insatiable of greed of big business, or as we now say, oligarchs.

FDR’s administration took the attitude that we rural people were just as important as people who lived in cities and got it done for us and other rural places. At the time the oligarchs screamed “SOCIALISM COMMUNISM TYRANNY” etc, just as they do now. If that is “SOCIALISM COMMUNISM TYRANNY” then give me more of it!

You know what feels like TYRANNY to millions of us? The fact that we are in a situation where our very lives mean less than a corporation’s profits. I know that the GOP is well known for campaigning as “tough on crime.” Most people oppose “crime” and when most people hear that word they think of threats to their safety that make them live in fear, because it’s hard to be happy when you’re afraid. But in actual fact, the things that create the most fear in our lives are not crimes, but actions that are perfectly legal. There is often a wide gulf between what is legal and what is right. For example enslavement of people was legal, and escaping from it was a crime.

The GOP budget is designed to make the oligarchs even richer, at the expense of what millions of us, people like me, need to literally stay alive: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, CHIP – government programs referred to as the social safety net. You do know that 30% of your constituents rely on Medicaid and CHIP for their own healthcare and that of their children? And 30% understates the number concerned, because the recipients have loved ones who may have incomes too high to qualify, meaning they earn over $17k for an individual, which is certainly not enough to pay their loved ones’ medical bills. BTW, a person earning $17k can’t afford to pay for “health insurance” either without giving up some necessity, such as good quality food. The ACA is better than nothing, but far less than we need. More to the point, it is far less than every other “developed” nation has. In those countries, medical bills do not drive people into bankruptcy. No one is forced to choose between medical treatment and homelessness.

There is a reason why Luigi Mangione, the man charged with killing the CEO of a health insurance company is regarded as a hero by so many, so much so that his legal defense team has set up a website for him to receive the flood of supportive messages from across the political spectrum and the nation, and for him to reply. Why is this happening?

It is not because Americans love people charged with premeditated murder. No one likes murder but gangsters. It is because people compare him to a soldier, whose use of violence occurs in defense of the nation against an enemy. What’s an enemy? One who threatens our survival, well-being, or homeland. Mangione’s support reflects a desperation because law and politics have failed us.

Consider this perfectly legal recent announcement by an insurance company of its new policy: that it will only reimburse for 2 hours of anesthesia during surgery. It does not take a medical degree to understand that a surgery lasting more than two hours indicates a patient with a serious medical problem. So what is the patient to do? Say, “Hey Doc, I’ll go bankrupt so cut off the anesthesia after two hours and just give me a rag to bite on?”

Meanwhile, a billionaire and his team are being permitted to steal our confidential financial and medical information, and apparently download it onto hard drives for his personal gain. This information can be sold to third parties for an enormous sum. Those who argue that Elon Musk is so rich that he could have no reason to do this miss the point. He is so, so, so rich because he hoards money. When someone’s home is filled to the rafters with old newspapers we quickly perceive there is a hoarding illness but because it is money, not newspapers, many somehow don’t see it. Despite having personal wealth exceeding $500 billion he is still trying to get to more. He gets huge government contracts worth billions and is removing government officials who have discovered misconduct by him. He is prancing around with a chainsaw, bragging about dismissing devoted public servants who he defames as incompetent while seeking to fill his pockets and is in effect running our government for his benefit. He is not just mentally unbalanced; he is also corrupt.

When I wrote to you objecting to his activities, you sent me a response that insulted my intelligence. Just because I’m an old woman who lives in the country doesn’t mean I’m ignorant. Your statement included the buzz words that I guess you thought would make me respond like waving a red flag in front of a bull: DEI and “Drag show.”

Get out of here with the drag show crap. What is a drag show? A theatrical performance where men dress up as women and sing and dance. Maybe you prefer a performance of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare? After all, it has a man and woman who get married. Are you aware that when Shakespeare put on his play for Queen Elizabeth, Juliet was being played by a man dressed as a woman, and I assume they embraced on stage?

Per your letter, the heroic efforts of Musk involved the discovery of some drag show in a foreign country receiving grants through USAID. In the first place, since this comes from Musk I have no reason to assume any of this is true because he is a serial liar. But even if a show did occur I would think the situation likely to be something like this: a grant was given to mental health facility to treat war refugees severely affected by this trauma. As is often the case, part of such treatment is to encourage patients to be creative, and that might include putting on a performance. And this might have involved men dressed as women, something that has occurred across cultures for thousands of years. It is often considered comedy that makes people laugh, even traumatized victims of war.

With respect to Musk, my demand that he be removed and prosecuted for crimes is by no means a rare desire. A recent poll showed only about 26% of those questioned approve of his activities and I know your phone has been ringing off the hook.

I am sure that YOU know that every federal agency has an Inspector General, a position that Congress created in order to be a watchdog to uncover waste, fraud and abuse. Why then would one of acts of the new administration be to summarily fire 18 of them, including those who had questions about Musk’s conduct regarding his very large government contracts?

You apparently are banking on the fact most constituents have never heard of Inspectors General.

And thus you are hoping no one will ask you the most reasonable question – why would a new administration immediately fire the very people assigned to the task of preventing waste, fraud and abuse, contrary to the manner the law requires? Sure, it’s possible that such an official is doing a poor job, or is even is involved in a corrupt cover up of waste or fraud. But, there was literally not enough time to investigate that, and your party, in control of Congress, did not even make an attempt to bring those officials before you in a hearing to question them about their job performance in full view of the people they actually work for, US. I was born 69 years ago, not yesterday.

As for DEI, what it actually means is that everyone, not just those who are male, white, heterosexual, Christian, younger and able-bodied also have a chance to make a living in an occupation of their choice. I was born in the 1950s, MS. Tenney, at a time when the idea of YOU being a member of Congress was considered as absurd as a cow being in Congress, and indeed the status of women very much resembled the status of a cow. And the reason it does not now is because WE hated it and WE demanded it change and we are not going back to the society of that time.

Some of our horrible situation was caused by laws, the rest by the absence of laws/policies requiring us to get fair treatment based on our individual abilities. That is what DEI actually means. It was not illegal for a woman to be in Congress, but, for example being able to attend law school as you did, which is often seen as credible preparation for one who aspires to be a law maker, was closed off due to a prejudice that the only proper decision a woman was qualified to make was whether to bake an angel food cake or a devil’s food cake for her lord and master to enjoy when he came home from work. And if we did get a job, usually dead end ones with low pay, we were subjected to conditions our male colleagues did not have to endure, whether it was people grabbing our asses when we walked by to literally threatening us with losing our jobs if we did not satisfy our supervisor’s sexual desires. And unless we were actually cornered in a room and by force or threat of force had a penis shoved into our body, there was literally nothing the law would do about it. We had this choice: endure it or quit. I had to work under those conditions as a young woman.

This brings me to the larger point: MAGA. What exactly does it mean? Or more to the point what does the last letter that stands for “again” mean? I have just explained why the 1950s sucked if you were a woman, as well as for other people. When in the past was life supposedly better in America? I have heard YOUR mad king wannabe declare America wealthiest time was between 1897 and 1913.

Apparently to took a well-known comedian to expose that statement as laughable: four men, known as robber barons, actually held most of the wealth, while nine year-olds were working in mines because the family literally couldn’t survive without that income, people were routinely being maimed or killed in workplace accidents, and of course women did not have the right to vote. And your party has publicly supported the return to such conditions in the name of “free-markets” or “small government” or “religious liberty.” And this has been the goal the goal of people in your party for a long time, summarized in the document known as Project 2025.

This administration is full of flat out lunatics. That in itself could fill a book, but I want to point to one policy announcement from the new Secretary of Transportation who is like so many now in those posts, not only unqualified but disqualified. It did not get much coverage given all the other nefarious doings. This memo announced the criteria by which grants to states for transportation projects would be given. It began with a list of fairly ordinary things then ended with this: that states that had the most people who were married and having the most children would be prioritized. This is crazy. How about prioritizing states that have the most dangerous bridges, or the most airports where congestion is creating a high risk of accidents --- or some other normal, reasonable thing?

Does someone who isn’t married with children deserve to die in a plane crash? I won’t mince words here. What he means is: grants are going to be doled out based on the religious beliefs of the residents. While many people are married with children, it is a well known fact that most couples with a very large number of children tend to be members of certain religions which literally dictate that. The Speaker of the House is captured on video saying that every woman should be obliged to give birth to a worker. That was literally the policy of Hitler’s Germany. Seriously, fuck off with all that shit. No woman is obliged to give birth, period. And no woman is obliged to refrain from heterosexual activity because her intention is not reproduction. And I daresay, were we women put in that position, heterosexual men would not find that a feature that was MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, am I right?

Last but not least, there are no kings or dictators in America. That why the War of Independence was fought, that is so patriotically celebrated every Fourth of July. And that is why the Constitution was written specifically with checks and balances, separation of powers, because they feared a situation like the one we are now in. Obviously they did not envision a Congress filled with people like those now in the GOP (BTW, you really need to remove all reference to Abraham Lincoln from your promotional material because I’m sure he’d disavow you were he alive.)

It is literally your job, your sworn oath, to remove from office via impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate anyone in the Executive attempting to seize kingly powers, or otherwise abuse the powers bestowed on them by the people, or anyone in the Judiciary collaborating in that attempt – such as by declaring that a POTUS may commit crimes in office with impunity. That literally is the definition of a tyrant. They are above the law because they are the law – another statement YOUR mad king has made just this week.

Therefore, I demand that you and all other members of Congress who refuse to act, resign and make way for those who will. Were we in a parliamentary system, we could call for immediate elections. But we aren’t and waiting two years just won’t do. This is a national emergency. We the people are the sovereign in America, and all elected officials work for us --- not the other way around.

What then are we left with if you refuse to go or change your conduct? Submission to this firehouse of bullshit is not an option. What remains? What can we do?

I can think of options, all of them extreme and illegal. But, allow me to remind you and everyone, that the acts of our founders to which such admiration is given, were actually an illegal secession – quite literally treason as the King of England viewed it.

Which brings me to the despicable treatment of our long time loyal friends, the Canadians. YOUR mad king has shamed our country by behaving like a mafia thug collecting protection money. The Canadians are rightfully outraged and now boycotting tourism to the US. You, Ms. Tenney, even if you lack a sense of morality and only care about money, should be concerned about this since you purport to represent NY24.

As you know, we have built an economy based on tourism – agro-tourism and eco-tourism specifically – that enables us to have livelihoods that don’t destroy the natural beauty of the place we love. WE have defended it from fracking, which would have destroyed our beloved home and our livelihoods so a few corporations could make money, even in the face of being told there was nothing we could do to stop it.

The insult to the good people of Canada is not just a moral outrage but an economic one. Given how close we are to the border, many Canadians come to visit us during the season. Folks from Ontario can hop in their car and a few hours later be settling in at a bed and breakfast, making plans to go wine tasting and then have a nice meal at one of our local restaurants featuring food raised on our family farms, maybe renting a kayak to go out on our beautiful lakes...you get the picture. They won’t be coming this year because you have failed to take action against a corrupt and dangerous president who thinks he’s a king and acts like a mob boss.

We will miss our Canadian visitors who won’t be coming this year. One bed and breakfast in my village hangs a Canadian flag next to our flag to make them feel welcome. How could I possibly blame them? How could anyone who was not a creep with a show on the Fox network that has been documented in a court of law to be serial liars on the air?

I know that you’re not stupid, so I have to ask myself what accounts for your dereliction of duty to your constituents? I saw on your web site that you have received death threats. I’m sure that is terrifying and I am aware that many members of Congress of both parties have received death threats, as well others in local office and outside of government altogether. Making death threats seems to be a practice of Trump’s most fervent supporters, and he encourages them by making public statements pointing out those people he wishes targeted. They know what he wants, just as they knew he wanted them to storm the Capitol and prevent Biden from becoming president though he had fairly won the election. Even stating that fact now provokes death threats, as well as disqualifies anyone from serving in his dumpster fire administration.

I have heard members of Congress, or those formerly members, report that many Republicans disapprove of what is going on but fear to speak up lest their lives, or those of their loved ones, be threatened. But others are speaking up against it despite the threats. I know this is asking a lot of a person, but being a member of Congress is a high honor that requires courage and principle above and beyond what is generally expected in ordinary life. No one is compelled to serve in Congress just as no one is any longer compelled to serve in the armed forces. Both of these types of service require courage and principle.

This brings me to another response from you regarding my strong objections to the violent thugs pardoned by Trump and released from prison on his first day in office, back in to our communities for the apparent purpose of being available to terrorize those who dare to challenge his lies and corruption again. These pardons are disapproved of by over 80% of those surveyed by reputable independent polling organizations, so they must include many people among them who voted for Trump.

Your response insulted my intelligence by omitting reference to the people who were judged in a court of law to have not only assaulted police officers but also committed premeditated acts of violence intended to support a coup attempt by Trump, long planned should he lose the election --- which he did. Your letter mentioned ONLY people who had done nothing but wander around the capitol, and who you said therefore suffered a miscarriage of justice. These were not the people sentenced to long prison terms and you know it, because you are a lawyer. You mentioned the conditions in the DC jail. I’m sure they are awful, just as awful for someone who was picked up on a warrant for failure to appear in court to answer for driving fifty miles an hour in a thirty mile an hour zone.

I followed the events of January 6 closely, including the Congressional hearings. But I can also testify, as one who has exercised my 1^st Amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances on more than one occasion, that people at such a gathering do NOT arrive with zip tie handcuffs (for hostage taking), flags on poles sharpened into spear points, bear spray, hatchets or loaded guns. I might be an absolute nobody who loves animals and gardening, and hates fracking and fascism, but am not an idiot and won’t be gaslit.

Therefore, if members of Congress can’t stand up and uphold their oaths to check an abuse of power, they MUST resign. We the people are increasingly outraged. Even those who voted for your party did not believe they were voting to lose their healthcare, have a billionaire rummaging unchecked in their private information, alienating our allies and having the POTUS all but get down his knees and fellate Vladimir Putin, a dangerous enemy, nor betray our friends like Ukraine who are fighting him, and dying, not only for their freedom but ours, destroying our postal service, firing without cause our civil servants who do such important work for us, turning the FBI into a hit squad against Trump’s critics and on and on. Literally it is so bad in such a short period of time that the suggestion that the State of New York should pass a resolution of secession as our founders did, to declare we will not be be the subjects of a king, and petition Canada to accept us as the newest province is no longer considered outlandish. After all, we already share a border. For folks in NY24 like me who work in hospitality, (in my case because Social Security is not enough to live on), Canadians wouldn’t be boycotting our local businesses. Instead, we’d have healthcare without any insurance companies demanding blood money from us.

The current situation looks like a consolidating tyranny, and I reject it. I am far from alone. I know there are those who want a king, and did in 1776 also. It was a time for choosing then. It is a time for choosing now. Given that you have put out the nauseating proposal that Trump’s birthday be made a federal holiday, like something straight out of North Korea, I admit I haven’t high hopes for you, but one never knows.

Lyn Gerry

Watkins Glen, NY

CC: District offices

Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan

Ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Jamie Raskin

US Senator Chuck Schumer

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

Governor of NY Kathy Hochul

NY AG Letitia James

NY State Senator Tom O’Mara

NY State Assembly Philip Palmesano

The Lincoln Project

The public