Alright, I’ve had about as much as I can take. The reaction to the “tea parties” has been ridiculous for the most part. I am not going to defend the political opportunism that a lot of the people in those protests showed. I’m positive that there were a significant number of people there that just don’t like Obama and would take any opportunity to vent. I’m not going to deal with them because I never take that sort of thing seriously. I’m going to talk about what those protests were nominally about, taxes.
There are two parts to tax protests, the amount of the tax and the use of the tax. I’ll deal with the latter first because it’s easy. I think that the repulsion of what our tax money has been used for stretches across all partisan lines. People of all stripes were appalled by the uses of our money. Bailouts of fabulously wealthy people (and campaign contributors), wars, propping up of failed companies (detroit, I’m looking at you), etc. I was amused when I read about some signs at a counter demonstration that read, “End corporate welfare!” They should have been part of the demonstration, not against it! Going into debt is not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on what you are buying. The recent misuse of our tax dollars is shocking, it should piss everyone off, no matter what their political leanings.
Ok, the other thing I hear in reaction to the tea party protests is that the people are stupid because Obama has actually lowered taxes on the people protesting. Let’s get this straight, OBAMA HAS RAISED TAXES DRAMATICALLY! What? Obama has done exactly what he has (rightfully) accused dubya of doing, piling on debt and leaving it for the next administration. What Bush did was terrible, but Obama has taken it to the next level. Why is no one calling him on this? Debt is simply taxes deferred. All of the debt that is being wracked up needs to be paid. There are two ways for us to pay it off, more taxes, or inflation. Either way, we will be getting the shaft. Why more people are not protesting the tax rate on their children I’ll never understand. Debt is taxes deferred. It’s the perfect political ploy, deliver stuff and don’t be around when the bill comes due. When we are languishing with rampant inflation and/or higher taxes, Obama wil be long gone.
People need to look past political affiliations and concentrate on basic accounting. That’s the main idea with the protests. The press and people that are prone to political partisanship are painting this as a “Which side are you on” issue instead of “We need to pay attention to what’s going on with our money.” Why is this so difficult for people to understand?