To the Editor:

(The following letter, to Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, has been received for publication in The Newtown Bee.)

“I’ve co-sponsored H.R. 699, the Stop the Sequester Job Loss Now Act introduced by Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), that would eliminate the sequester and reduce the deficit by more than the scheduled across-the-board cuts through commonsense, cost-cutting policies — repealing subsidies for big oil and big gas, eliminating wasteful subsidies for big agriculture, and enacting a ‘Buffet Rule’ so that the wealthiest are paying their fair share.”

So reads an excerpt from your recent newsletter. Congratulations on your part in mismanaging the sequester....you’re finally cutting something! Washington’s default position is that the present levels of government spending are the absolute minimum we can survive on. For Congress to cut anything substantial appears nearly impossible.

When you think of your future, do you plan to sit your grandchildren on your lap and tell them of all the good things Grandma did while holding the prestigious position of United States Congressman? If that’s the future you look forward to, I have some bad news. To deliver that message to your grandchildren, you’ll have to lie to them in a way that should make you cringe with discomfort.

Regarding your newsletter, it’s a congressional joke, right? Big oil, big gas, big agriculture? What gives you the moral authority to disparage people working in these industries for accepting subsidies that you and your colleagues have legislated, as if retaining the wealth they’ve created is somehow sleazy? Those three industries have collectively done more to promote the causes of individual prosperity and wealth than any government program ever created. Rather than disparaging them, it would be far less absurd if you genuflected when speaking of them. You and your colleagues are well-fed, warm and able to travel freely around the world because of those industries, despite the constraints placed on them by the FDA, EPA, TSA and fifty other agencies.

Regarding the wealthiest paying their fair share, your constituency is astute enough to recognize this for the insult it is. Your vision of a socialist utopia collapses without the wealthy. They not only pull the wagon, they built it, financed it and maintain it so the government dependents you have created can ride in it.

How about you include a shout-out to Big Government ... the biggest big of all the bigs ... bigger and far more wasteful than all the other bigs combined? Andrew Breitbart, a man of intense dedication to the causes of Freedom and Liberty, devoted his tragically short life to exposing hypocrisy and waste in government, and named one of his sites Biggovernment.com. Do yourself a favor ... go brew yourself a pot of that organic, fair-trade coffee you liberals love to promote and spend a few hours on Breitbart’s sites. Try to understand the opposition’s view point. You are on the wrong side of logic, the wrong side of history, the wrong side of morality. You’ll regret the role you are playing in destroying this country. And your grandchildren will see through your story.

Brendan Duffy

4 Chestnut Knoll, Sandy Hook                                       April 20, 2013