I’m a believer in the responsiveness of our elected officials in the United States. Maybe I shouldn’t be. We vote. They should represent us and respond to our concerns.
It becomes clearer each year that is less and less likely. Case in point is a recent personal situation.
My Medicare premium tripled this month. When I saw that my payments would escalate exponentially, I almost toppled over. WTF!?!?
It did not make sense. Congress had just come out of its budgetary nightmare of non-decision-making and it seemed to me that maybe my increase was due to their inaction on this issue.
So, I wrote to my U.S. Senators in Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin (D) and Ron Johnson (R), asking for an explanation. Please note, I did not ask them to resolve or fix anything. Instead, please, I would just like to know what’s going on. And I added a line about leaving politics out of it. Just explain to me why my Medicare premium went up the elevator to the third floor.
Let the record reflect, I also attempted to contact my Congressman, Mark Fitzgerald (R), and his website was so utterly useless that there was no way to send him an email or other electronic message. I guess he does not like to be reached.
We all have preconceptions about what we’ll hear back from elected officials, how quickly they will respond and will they say anything helpful. I’ve written to my elected local, state and federal officials many times during my years on this planet with differing results, mostly obfuscated responses to the issue I raised.
So, here goes. Johnson’s staff got back to me within days. Good. I was asked for additional information. I sent it, and was then immediately connected to another staff person who works the issue. She took my info and quickly sent a form I had to fill out that would go over to the Social Security office. I figured that would be the black hole.
Actually, I was surprised and in a reasonable timeframe (1-2 weeks) they got back to me with a full explanation and offered to go over my change and see if something could be reworked. Because I understood their explanation and why my premium had gone up, I didn’t need to have that meeting, but thanked them, and Johnson’s staff members who worked on the issue for me.
Baldwin’s staff took much longer to get back to me (2-3 weeks longer than Johnson’s staff). They offered no help. Instead, they sent a classic, “We work had to keep premiums down and will keep working for you.” They didn’t answer my questions. They didn’t give me any help. Their note was classic “write-around” language, putting things in such a way that it sounded like they were doing something for their constituents, but you didn’t really know what it was.
I write this column because I expect more. I don’t expect some immediate change to my life. But, I think it’s fair that those who represent us are responsive and open to concerns that we raise, and egads, maybe even take steps to address issues occasionally.
Everyone who votes deserves this connection to the people who represent them. It’s a small thing to ask: response to my question, explain what’s going on, offer a step or solution that might help. We all deserve that respect.
It becomes clearer each year that is less and less likely. Case in point is a recent personal situation.
My Medicare premium tripled this month. When I saw that my payments would escalate exponentially, I almost toppled over. WTF!?!?
It did not make sense. Congress had just come out of its budgetary nightmare of non-decision-making and it seemed to me that maybe my increase was due to their inaction on this issue.
So, I wrote to my U.S. Senators in Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin (D) and Ron Johnson (R), asking for an explanation. Please note, I did not ask them to resolve or fix anything. Instead, please, I would just like to know what’s going on. And I added a line about leaving politics out of it. Just explain to me why my Medicare premium went up the elevator to the third floor.
Let the record reflect, I also attempted to contact my Congressman, Mark Fitzgerald (R), and his website was so utterly useless that there was no way to send him an email or other electronic message. I guess he does not like to be reached.
We all have preconceptions about what we’ll hear back from elected officials, how quickly they will respond and will they say anything helpful. I’ve written to my elected local, state and federal officials many times during my years on this planet with differing results, mostly obfuscated responses to the issue I raised.
So, here goes. Johnson’s staff got back to me within days. Good. I was asked for additional information. I sent it, and was then immediately connected to another staff person who works the issue. She took my info and quickly sent a form I had to fill out that would go over to the Social Security office. I figured that would be the black hole.
Actually, I was surprised and in a reasonable timeframe (1-2 weeks) they got back to me with a full explanation and offered to go over my change and see if something could be reworked. Because I understood their explanation and why my premium had gone up, I didn’t need to have that meeting, but thanked them, and Johnson’s staff members who worked on the issue for me.
Baldwin’s staff took much longer to get back to me (2-3 weeks longer than Johnson’s staff). They offered no help. Instead, they sent a classic, “We work had to keep premiums down and will keep working for you.” They didn’t answer my questions. They didn’t give me any help. Their note was classic “write-around” language, putting things in such a way that it sounded like they were doing something for their constituents, but you didn’t really know what it was.
I write this column because I expect more. I don’t expect some immediate change to my life. But, I think it’s fair that those who represent us are responsive and open to concerns that we raise, and egads, maybe even take steps to address issues occasionally.
Everyone who votes deserves this connection to the people who represent them. It’s a small thing to ask: response to my question, explain what’s going on, offer a step or solution that might help. We all deserve that respect.
