- 122
- 10
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2003
Somehting that I came across
Mr. Obama,
Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, Ifind myself motivated to say a few things to you myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. Butfirst, let me introduce myself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54-year-old high school graduate. I didn't go to college likeyou, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business ata time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from the government, nordid I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawnshop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few toolsto do my first job. My businesses did not start not a result of privilege. It is the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self-discipline, selfreliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. Icouldn't afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessaryfor each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10-year-old, ½-ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).
A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn out, slightlybigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig while simultaneouslyrebuilding it between jobs. Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind onmy income taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on mywater well supply bill 2 different years (way behind the second time… $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay forongoing supplies C.O.D. Of course, the personal stress endured through these experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now tomemorialize it all.
I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along the way, Ihired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work out for 3 years so Ihad to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or tohelp me sleep at night, as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machineworking properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.
2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to runanother, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, ora move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.
A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent myentire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customersimmediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would makeme a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for asmany credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister andbrother), to get this 3rd business going.
Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design andbring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awakewondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, whichimmediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship ofone of my key suppliers, so an employee and I (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers' pumps, practically fromcoast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers' productlines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, Ididn't expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.
Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually throughthe local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a productionmachine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, themachine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the nextfew months. This should work out, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed ourcountry's' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaninginstitutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get a business loan to get my mud pumpsinto production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no downpayment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowerswere enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pumpbusiness that has created jobs for more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businessesto grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value ofthat has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.
You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressingand risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, andall the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, and wouldn't demand from themselves what I have demanded frommyself. I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it the most" that you believe should be taxed more to provide incomeredistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want tocharacterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into yourentitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What's worse, eachyear more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals aresucceeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public schoolsystems across our land.
What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self-reliance, self-motivation,self-determination, self-discipline, personal betterment, and hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach on everyable bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist paththat has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems wouldspend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at largeembracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embracesuch ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But thatwould eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solvingwas best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in ourcountry. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever-expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never produced ajob in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off their entitlementmentality #!#%! and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.
You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. Peoplewho just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they woulddo more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder howthings would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlementmentality culture.
Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has been givento charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office - can you pronounce "politically motivated"); youaveraged of less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won't saywhat I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you or Joe Biden (don't you just hate goggle?). Tellme again how you feel my pain.
In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependenceinstead of self-reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Politicalcorrectness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatestand most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Likeall of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind everyyear.
God help us…
Cory Miller
just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American… www.cmillerdrilling.com
http://www.eclecticwill.com/2008/10/open-letter-to-sen-obama-from-corey-miller-the-well-driller/http://www.eclecticwill.co
Mr. Obama,
Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, Ifind myself motivated to say a few things to you myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. Butfirst, let me introduce myself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54-year-old high school graduate. I didn't go to college likeyou, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business ata time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from the government, nordid I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawnshop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few toolsto do my first job. My businesses did not start not a result of privilege. It is the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self-discipline, selfreliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. Icouldn't afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessaryfor each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10-year-old, ½-ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).
A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn out, slightlybigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig while simultaneouslyrebuilding it between jobs. Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind onmy income taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on mywater well supply bill 2 different years (way behind the second time… $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay forongoing supplies C.O.D. Of course, the personal stress endured through these experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now tomemorialize it all.
I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along the way, Ihired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work out for 3 years so Ihad to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or tohelp me sleep at night, as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machineworking properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.
2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to runanother, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, ora move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.
A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent myentire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customersimmediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would makeme a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for asmany credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister andbrother), to get this 3rd business going.
Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design andbring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awakewondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, whichimmediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship ofone of my key suppliers, so an employee and I (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers' pumps, practically fromcoast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers' productlines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, Ididn't expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.
Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually throughthe local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a productionmachine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, themachine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the nextfew months. This should work out, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed ourcountry's' (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaninginstitutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get a business loan to get my mud pumpsinto production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no downpayment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowerswere enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pumpbusiness that has created jobs for more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businessesto grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value ofthat has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.
You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressingand risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, andall the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, and wouldn't demand from themselves what I have demanded frommyself. I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it the most" that you believe should be taxed more to provide incomeredistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want tocharacterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into yourentitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What's worse, eachyear more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals aresucceeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public schoolsystems across our land.
What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self-reliance, self-motivation,self-determination, self-discipline, personal betterment, and hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach on everyable bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist paththat has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems wouldspend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at largeembracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embracesuch ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But thatwould eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solvingwas best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in ourcountry. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever-expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never produced ajob in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off their entitlementmentality #!#%! and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.
You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. Peoplewho just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they woulddo more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder howthings would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlementmentality culture.
Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has been givento charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office - can you pronounce "politically motivated"); youaveraged of less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won't saywhat I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you or Joe Biden (don't you just hate goggle?). Tellme again how you feel my pain.
In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependenceinstead of self-reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Politicalcorrectness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatestand most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Likeall of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind everyyear.
God help us…
Cory Miller
just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.
P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American… www.cmillerdrilling.com
http://www.eclecticwill.com/2008/10/open-letter-to-sen-obama-from-corey-miller-the-well-driller/http://www.eclecticwill.co
