Well, this pretty much sums up my thoughts about the so-called tea parties.It's not that it's bad to protest. It's a necessary part of politicking. The people must be heard above the noise of the political engine churning on Capitol Hill.
It's not that this isn't even a worthy cause. The Federal Government is expanding mighty quickly, and just maybe these people have a point.
While this is a way to get one's voice heard, an important first step, it fails at the more important second step: Getting a response other than a furrowed brow and confused glance from legislators, conservative and liberal alike.
Where were these people the last eight years? In an interview I had with Rep. John Boozman, he admitted to vast government expansion at the rate of 3 per cent average annually.
“We were certainly guilty of that,” he said. “We increased the government at about a rate of 3 percent per year, which was too much, but the new administration has increased it by 8 percent so far and is projecting to add 9 percent on top of that in 2010.
“I don’t think that’s what Arkansans want or need right now.”
Well, sure, but tell that to the brilliant people who are masterfully photoshopping Obama's face over Hitler's body.
I wonder how they voted in 2004 and 2008.Here's a pro-business, anti-tax conservative's take. Don't let those big numbers fool you.
Now, I wouldn't go as far as to call this a collection of right-wingnut crazies, like Krugman or Brummett might. But the message is getting lost in the noise; Not only the noise of people who aren't genuine or informed in their stance, but people who are knowingly disingenuous, ill-informed, and willfully so. I guess that goes for every gathering. The idiots often steal the spotlight.
Clear out that mess, lose the costumes, then maybe it'll make some noise worth hearing. That hasn't proven to be the case just yet, no matter how valid the argument for the gathering.
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Americans pay substantially less in taxes than most other nations. The tax increase is around 3% of an increase on the rich. Even with the increase, the rich, (and the rest of us) pay substantially less than they did in the Reagan years. Taxes as a percentage of American GDP are the lowest they've been since 1950.
ReplyDeleteIf they are protesting an increase in spending, the differences between this year and last year are marginal, at best. That said, an increase in government spending usually does help the economy (see: Depression, Great).
Furthermore, oftentimes it is pertinent to look at the brain trust, and/or pocketbook of such groups. This one happens to be called FreedomWorks, which is a hyper-conservative, quasi-violent militia of the richest gaybashers in America. The protesters are their pawns in their game of ridding the world of gays and Jews.
If you're reading this and protested, you're a halfwit fucktard, and your seed should be wiped from the earth. Unfortunately, you probably already had kids in your trailer during high school. Way to keep yourselves down.
America pays less taxes because we are Capitalists. Apples and Oranges. I'd actually argue that the end of the great depression was a result of Pearl Harbor and our subsequent involvement in WWII where our private industries went into "America Fuck yeah" mode. (off of government contracts) but that's neither here nor there.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to the teabaggers, the feel I got is that people are ticked about the spending more than the taxing, specifically the B.S projects I hear about. The protestors sure went about this in the wrong way, and it seemed to be an obvious right wing attack on Obama, with some Libertarian make up. They obviously had no clue what exactly they wanted to protest. In fact Elliot Spitzer of all people made a intelligent statement of how we should use all this money...but I digress.
The funny thing is how the media portrayed all of this. Fox is just now washing their mouths from the teabag day, and MSNBC/CNN still have nothing to talk about other than crazy right wingers and the inept GOP.
It's funny, someone on Fox news said, "regardless of how you feel you have to respect the right to protest." However whenever someone like Project Pink protests, Fox news goes all apeshit. Meanwhile the other networks are turning into Fox news during the Bush years. Basically what I'm trying to get at is: (Sorry Zack) the media blows.
As far as taxing and spending, I still fail to see how the current plan helps the average American, but that is a whole other post.
/returns to Friedman shrine
Just noticed the party like 1773 sign. That puts the icing on the cake for me.
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