Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Letter to the President

President of the United States

The Honorable Joe Biden

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.

Washington DC, 20500

Dear President Biden:

I am not sure whether to laugh, cry, or pour three fingers of bourbon whisky?  Just checked my Charles Schwab Account -  Hmm!  On January 4, 2022 was at its highest.  But I look today June 13, 2022, there is a paper loss of $27,663.82 or $4,610.63 average per month.  You have said we have the strongest economy in “the world, in the world, in the world”.  If that is true how do explain the above and the tremendous paper loss I have experienced?  How can you with surety blame Putin and COVID-19?  I think more to the point it was knuckleheaded policies by your Administration.  But what do I know, I’m just an Iowa Farm Boy?

Let me explain I am in my 20th year of retirement; I will celebrate my 81^st birthday in July.  I have a small Pension, Social Security, an IRA, and farm ground that I own and receive rental payments.  So I have income, but it seems to be at greater and greater risk as time goes by mainly, in my opinion, due to your horrible economic and foreign policies.  You see, I have seen this movie before – this is my triple feature.  Starting with the farm crisis of the 80’s ( I barely held on to my farm), then the housing crisis of 07-08 where I lost one half of my IRA = $400,000 and now your bungling of the economy; whenever Government interferes in business the outcome has always had a dramatic negative on my economic health.   

The majority of my retirement income is from farm rental.  We have a good tenant. He is an excellent Farmer and a very good manager of money and resources.  He treats my land like it is his, I couldn’t ask any more.  But his economic health is in jeopardy.  This week on one of the news programs they interviewed a dairy farmer – not sure if it was Wisconsin or Michigan.  But, he was talking about his sharp rise in input costs for his dairy operation.  An example, one of his tractors that pulls a feeder used to fill the feed bunks for the cattle burns ten gallons of diesel fuel an hour.   For many farmers a ten hour day is normal, that means at $5.28 per gallon, his fuel cost is $528.00 per day.   But that’s not the saddest story I’ve heard – a trucker whose normal fill was $600 per day is now $1,200.  Another farmer’s fertilizer cost on 640 acres was $40,000 is now $124,000 (the macronutrients are Nitrogen(NH3, Phosphorus(P2-O5, and Potassium(K2-O)) –[That is of course if I remember my Chemistry and Agronomy from ISU correctly.)  The question is where do we get these chemicals?  {NH3 is a byproduct of natural gas production – The rest are mainly imports –many from Russia)]   Your war against hydrocarbons is costing the working people of this country big time.  These high costs of doing business are not sustainable.   But, the worst thing possible is if you do not pivot on your foreign and domestic policies our working class will end up in poverty.  You need to disavow the Green New Deal.  We do not need to deplete our strategic oil reserve, buy oil from Russia, Iran, or Venezuela.   All the hydrocarbon energy we need for the next 200-500 years is under our feet and found in the underground of our Canadian neighbor.

President Clinton was smart enough to pivot in ’94, you have a chance to do the same, but no one in your cabinet has the intelligence to advise you

1. Finish the wall on our Southern border

2. Grant oil drillers permits to begin the find

3. Complete the Keystone XL pipeline [It will be complete in 8 months]

4. Recover Natural Gas wherever it can be found and

5. Start the permit process to build Modular Nuclear Reactors. 

6. Wind and solar energy are expensive and can not be relied on 100%

The other question at life's end where do we put the remains? Landfills? They are not degradable. The energy crisis will be over in one year if you do this; if not then a recession followed by depression is in the future.

You have suckled the teat of government for four decades now going on the fifth and it seems you have learned nothing as to how to govern. You have never held a real job – ever.  You have been able to fool many, but this Iowa farm boy, now near his December, is not fooled.  You are a disgrace to those like me who wore the U. S. on the collar and the Eagle on their hat (USAF Uniform).  We would have sacrificed all, but it was you and those like you that disgraced us in Vietnam and now Kabul and Bagram Afghanistan:  Shame on you.

It pains me to say this, but you are the biggest mistake this electorate has made since Jimmy Carter.  The midterms will be devastating for Democrats.  It is my hope that the progressive ideology will be defeated this November as well.  We have been heading for Marxism/Communism for some time now. I hope it dies a tragic death as well.  Freedom!!!, we fought a tragic war – called the Revolution to free ourselves from the U.K. Monarchy won and later adopted a Constitution that has stood the test.  And to this day is an extraordinary example of how self-rule can work – if only we observe it.

Many had great hopes for you, but unfortunately you have failed miserably.  My paper loss is only a pimple of what is to come unless you divorce yourself from the so-called “Progressives” – read Marxists.

May God restore your cognitive skills.  I pray this happens – you are losing the trust of your own party.  I also pray for your good health – for having Kamala in charge would be worse than now.  You could not have picked a worse number two?  And, I still need the bourbon – maybe two.

I hope for God’s grace on you and our country, Amen

Sincerely yours,  

John Stiegelmeyer

Social Crusaders never take responsibility for the chaos they cause.   

-Thomas Sowell