Your letter of Dec. 9th contains several half-truths regarding the payroll tax cuts. Here is the major points that the Republicans have proposed:

(1)Speed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. (there are already about 50,000 miles of pipeline this size in the US and we all know that the current president will allow this to pass IF he gets reelected, he currently doesn't want to tick off the ultra-liberals before the 2012 election). Remember, we were promised thousands of "shovel-ready" jobs, well here they are. Also, if we don't buy this oil from Canada, guess who will.

(2) Increase premiums on Medicare for those whose income is above $80K/year.

(3) End food stamps and unemployment benefits for millionaires.

(4) Sell some Federal assets

(5) Freeze pay of Federal employees including members of Congress.

(6) Reduce number of Federal employees by 10%.

(7) Gradually reduce jobless benefits from 99 to 59 weeks.

(8) Protect doctors from 27% cut in Medicare payments scheduled for Jan 1st.

Now what listed here is so objectionable?

Also, this isn't a tax increase(or decrease), it is better called a "tax holiday" since the payroll tax has been 6.2% for years, but this has temporarily reduced it to 4.2% to "stimulate" the economy.

This tax holiday has taken $110,000,000,000 out of the coffers of Social Security in 2010, and if extended, will take another $110 billion from SS in 2011. I imagine that in 15 years when you start collecting your social security, that you will be very upset to find out that your promised benefit might be reduced because of lack of funds.

Current Federal deficit: $15+ trillion and counting by $4 billion per day.