I am very thankful to Congressman Adam Smith (D-District 9) for his principled votes on behalf of the American people this month.

I am well aware that, because of Republican rhetoric bordering on the ridiculous, which was spread widely by right-wing media and because of the extreme pressure put on him by President Obama, it was a difficult vote to make.

Republicans held hostage the middle class and unemployed in order to get a millionaire and billionaire tax bailout for their rich friends — the millionaires and billionaires and multi-national corporations that have sent millions of American jobs overseas. The criminal Bush wealth redistribution from working Americans to his millionaire and billionaire friends has been on the books for eight years. During that time, we’ve seen nothing but job losses.

Putting huge amounts of money into the pockets of the very rich doesn’t create jobs or help the economy, but it certainly helps Swiss banks.

Republicans managed to insert not one but two millionaire bailouts in the bill that passed, at great expense to the American taxpayer because of the nearly trillion dollars that was added to the national debt. The deal will slash the estate tax, also known as the “Paris Hilton tax.” This second bailout will give a gigantic tax giveaway to a few thousand of the richest families in the country and add hundreds of billions to the national debt.

Also the Bush redistribution of wealth bill threatens Social Security by lowering the payroll tax, which funds Social Security savings accounts. Republicans and Wall Street have been greedily eying the $2.6 trillion Social Security savings account for years, and this cut is the biggest threat to the program in decades.

I can’t imagine the wheedling and whining and arm-twisting that went on in the halls of Congress, but I am very grateful that Congressman Smith held on to his principles of fiscal responsibility and did the right thing.

Karen Hedwig Backman, Federal Way