I had almost forgotten about those bizarro Tea Parties held around tax day in April……when I came across schedules for even more Tea Parties to be held this weekend. Yep, no joke.
Parties in northeast Ohio are scheduled for Cleveland, Canton and Ravenna.
Here's a message from the Canton Tea Party organizers……
Declare and Defend your Independence from the Tax and Spenders! It's time to turn up the heat on elected officials who want to impose more taxes, create more government waste, and throw the Constitution out the window. In keeping with the tone of the Tax Day Tea Parties, We the People are gathering to celebrate our independence. Let’s declare and defend the values and principles that have made our nation the greatest in the world! Limited Government Fiscal Responsibility Free Market System Holding our elected officials accountable Ladies and Gentlemen Let Freedom Ring! The Tea Party Patriots of Canton, OH are hosting a rally on the Kresge Lot located in downtown Canton on July 5th 2009. The event will run from 3:00pm to 7:00pm. Be sure to tell everyone you can and suggest this event to all your Facebook friends. The larger the crowd, the bigger the message!
The Reverend believes in liberty and justice for all. I, therefore, applaud anyone who wants to organize peacefully for political reasons. However, I also believe in literacy and empirical reality….in fact, I highly recommend both.
It seems to me…..and you can feel free to call me nutty….that being intelligently informed and recognizing objective truth, rather than just accepting what Rush and FOX are saying and living in some fifth dimension, fiction-bubble reality…..would be the more appropriate path to follow in the 21st century. Opinions vary, I guess.
Anyway….to my conservative friends who might be Tea Partying this weekend…..this is my "come to Jesus" altar call moment.
"impose more taxes"
President Obama's short 6 month leadership has resulted in a payroll tax CUT for all employees who pay the payroll tax. That was a CUT, not an INCREASE. And while it's true that Obama and the Democrats increased taxes on those nasty, nasty, cancer causing cigarettes….many more American children are now covered by health insurance with those taxes. Conservatives don't hate children, do they? Of course not.
Yes, eventually, Obama will allow those Depression contributing Bush tax cuts to expire on the richest amongst us. Those who only make the paltry sum of $200,000 and up will see their share of federal income tax increase by the astronomical figure of 3%, and only on money made above $200K. I'm not sure…..but I'm guessing that Tea Party attendees won't include too many fatcats, you know, protesting this weekend by holding a sign that reads, "Where's the Birth Certificate." Could be wrong.
So…."impose more taxes"…..is a fictitious construct not based on reality.
"create more government waste"
At first, I asked myself…..is Obama's government creating more sewage? Then, I calculated that this phrase must be referring to Obama's stimulus plan. It's still a bit early to judge the effectiveness of the stimulus, but anecdotally, I've heard many state officials state that many more layoffs would have happened without the stimulus. Is saving jobs considered "creating more governmental waste?"
Even though our national economy is far from being out of the woods, in reality world, the immediate threat of a cataclysmic disaster has been avoided through direct governmental actions, actions actually begun under a Republican president and carried forward under Obama.
"throw the Constitution out the window"
Once again, it's not clear what part of the Constitution these Tea Party organizers are referring to….but just as a kind of remedial exercise, are torture, wars of aggression, defrauding Congress, outing CIA agents, doubling the national debt, denying habeas to American citizens, secret gulags, the vice-presidency as a 4th governmental branch, the unitary executive theory, and politicizing of the Justice Department…..all in the Constitution?
I can just feel the tears welling up when this emotional cheer goes up at this weekend's Tea Parties….
Limited Government Fiscal Responsibility Free Market System Holding our elected officials accountable Ladies and Gentlemen Let Freedom Ring!
Under every conservative president in my lifetime, the federal government has expanded. Under every conservative president in my lifetime, budget deficits have been the rule and the national debt has increased. The "Free Market System", left unchecked as it has been, created the financial depression we are now experiencing. The call….."Holding our elected officials accountable"…..is simply incredulous after those who instituted lawless torture policies and transparently defrauded Congress and the American people into a war of aggression in Iraq……were and never will be, "held accountable" for their many crimes.
But hey….Party On Dudes…but a word of warning….don't let any tea bags, you know, hit you in the face.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
For those truly interested in empirical reality, I think I read somewhere that the private sector lost another 400,000-plus jobs last month and it must be close to 3 million since Master took the reins.
The stimulus sucks.
473K Larry. Almost 100k more than projected. Just another indicator that spells trouble. Also the consumer confidence numbers dropped from 54.9 to 49.5 They were projected to go to 55.6. This is a bad sign for a recovery. We will see a total unemployment rate of 15 to 18% before this turns around.
larry – to be empirical you would have to know how many jobs would have been lost without the stimulus and then calculate the effect of the stimulus. Also you would have to calculate how many would have been lost if McCain has won instead of the "Master" before you could attribute the total loss of jobs to the "Master." Also you have to know what McCain would have done. Let us know the results when you have done all that huh?
In addition to mary's accurate points, I would add that new unemployment numbers are dropping. When Obama took office we were losing 600-700,000 jobs per month.
And larry, do all the jobs created by defense spending each year suck?
Finally, an 8 year Republican presidency wound down to the economic disaster we are now in. It is empirically correct to point out that Obama inherited this mess. The "growth" experienced during Bush, as slight as it was, was all based on paper shuffling and debt creation. Approximately 50% of GDP growth during Bush was in the financial sector….which makes and produces….umm….nothing. As mary alludes to….McCain's plan was for even more tax cuts for business and the wealthy….which didn't stimulate squat under Bush.
You do expect the nation to pay back all the money it borrowed, don't you?
This nation was made great by one generation sacrificing for the next. Our grandparents did it for our parents. Our parents did it for us. Always trying to make sure the next generation had it better. The stimulus reverses the trend. We are now knowingly stealing from future generations.
Revenues increased after the Bush tax cuts, the same as they did during the Reagan tax cuts and the Kennedy tax cuts before that. You can repeat all of the donkey talking points you want but it does not change the facts.
There is no evidence that the stimulus package saved or created 1000 jobs, let alone the numbers the White House is claiming – that the cheerleaders masquerading as reporters gladly parrot.
The results are in, mary. The stimulus sucks.
I heard it straight from my second cousin. She speaks French.
larry d OK I am laughing. Take care.
bzzzp….if revenues increased under GOP presidents…..why in the hell did the deficits increase? How is it that under 20 of the last 28 years of Republican presidents, the national debt has skyrocketed?
This…
"Always trying to make sure the next generation had it better. The stimulus reverses the trend."
….demonstrates a lack of understanding of how America has gotten into the economic mess we're in. Additionally, the stimulus became essential after Bush bailouts signaled how deep our economic problems were. This recession has been building for quite awhile…..mainly caused by conservatives(R's & D's) unwilling to deal with reality.
You have got to be kidding me. It is because of the spending!
Congress controls the purse strings. And yes, I know that some of those deficits were under a Republican congress.
It is never necessary to steal from people.
Is it okay to "steal" 50% of yearly taxes, (and the deficits created by such massive expenditures), for military world domination?
Some would have us believe that it's only silly domestic spending by a socialistic Congress that drains the economic hopes of future generations.
I think that would be akin to having one eye blind.
And…no…I'm not kidding.
Rev,
For someone calling for "empirical reality," you sure ignored a lot of it, and you still don't understand what the Tea Parties are about.
If Obama's agenda is implemented, he will bring about the biggest tax increases in American history, by far. The cigarette tax is an injustice, but paltry when compared to the cap-and-trade and health care tax increases, but somehow you left those two massive tax hikes out of your post. Why ? Obama's paltry tax cuts will also expire in 2010. That's NEXT YEAR. You left that out also. And then the Bush tax cuts expire. That's another tax increase. You couldn't have stated the OPPOSITE of empirical reality any better than you did, Rev. Extremely dishonest.
bzzzzp stated the real problem, government spending. Our government is so out-of-control that it almost defies description. This includes the Bush era, but things have gotten even worse with Obama. That's what the Tea Parties are about (they are most definitely not pro-Bush). The Tea Parties are pro-liberty and against the unconstitutional government plantation mentality. Anyone who can't see that just isn't paying attention, or is being misled by the nonsensical and unamerican propaganda emanating from certain circles.
If you are unclear about what part of the Constitution the Tea Partiers are talking about – show me where in the Constitution it authorizes the federal government to bail out and take over car companies, banks, other financial entities, the health care industry, the housing market, the insurance market, etc., all at the expense of the taxpayers. Show me where the government is allowed to take your wealth away merely to "redistribute" it. Show me where the government is allowed to dictate salaries in the private sector. Show me where the government is allowed to pick winners and losers in private industry. Show me where the feds are allowed to trample all over states rights. Show me where the USA is authorized to have military bases in 130 countries worldwide. Show me where the USA is beholden to international law. Show me where the government is allowed to have a centralized database of all our medical records. Show me where we aren't allowed to defend our borders. Show me where the Constitution intended the federal government to take over half of the US economy (which is where will soon be if health care and cap-and-trade pass). Show me where racial quotas are commanded. Show me where RICO laws are constitutional. On and on and on and on it goes.
And we're just supposed to sit back and take it ? NO. Let's pack those Tea Parties until someone takes notice. It's time to Take Back America, for real this time, because it's almost too late.
Rev
You have got to get your hands on a copy of the constitution. It can be very enlightening.
I love how you guys throw around terms like 'military world domination' and imperialism. Maybe you should get a dictionary as well.
Did we keep France, Germany or Japan after WWII? Is Iraq or Afghanistan or Kuwait our 51st state? No nation has ever freed as many people as we have.
There are not many tasks for the federal government in the constitution, but 'provide for the common defense' is one of them. By your own admission they use up 50 % of the taxes. That means they are living within our means. (I'd like to see some backup for the 50% claim)
It is the other money that is spent on "extra-constitutional' things that is the problem.
Defense spending is about 20% of the federal budget from the figures I've seen. 4.7% of GDP.
"Did we keep France, Germany or Japan after WWII? Is Iraq or Afghanistan or Kuwait our 51st state? No nation has ever freed as many people as we have."
The U.S has military bases in all of those countries. The point is not "keeping"….it's controlling.
"As of 2009, the United States government is spending about $1 trillion annually on defense-related purposes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
So for Obama's deficits, we could have re-spent all our military contracts, like, multiple times over?! That would have been a hell of alot more jobs created than even those "saved" by the stimulus.
I wish we would have controlled France, they would have gone along with the Iraq war.
I wish we would have controlled Germany, they're a European powerhouse.
I wish we would have controlled Japan, we could have made a shite-ton of money over the last few decades.
I wish we would have controlled Iraq and Kuwait since the early 90's… we'd have all the oil we need. That was it, right? War for oil? Oil that we never got?
So for Obama's deficits, we could have re-spent all our military contracts, like, multiple times over?! That would have been a hell of alot more jobs created than even those "saved" by the stimulus.
I wish we would have controlled France, they would have gone along with the Iraq war.
I wish we would have controlled Germany, they're a European powerhouse.
I wish we would have controlled Japan, we could have made a ton of money over the last few decades.
I wish we would have controlled Iraq and Kuwait since the early 90's… we'd have all the oil we need. That was it, right? War for oil? Oil that we never got?
double post in case s.h.i.t.e doesn't go through
I said control…..not simply steal their stuff.
A big part of Iraq was the oil. The big reason why "Third Way" Tony Blair went along with Commander Guy was for the sake of BP. And guess who signed the first contract for the biggest Iraqi oil site? British Petroleum.
The neo-cons wanted the U.S. military bases in Iraq from which we could project our power throughout the region.
If the U.S is not controlling or seeking to control the world…..why all the military bases?
Man you know how to go off on a tangent. We don't control Japan. We don't control France. We don't control Germany. We don't control Kuwait. We didn't control Iraq from the first Iraq war.
And we don't steal their stuff either.
But keep on going, it sounds better to call us imperialists.
And again, for Obama's deficits, we could have spent multiple times over into our defense contracting which would have provided real, lasting jobs. Plus it would have been one of the things the Constitution says the government should do.
I disagree with your "real, lasting" defense jobs. They are no different from shovel ready, you know, regular jobs.
And you didn't answer the question….why all the military bases?
The Constitution gives Congress the power, not only to protect the nation by declaring war and appropriating funds for those wars, but also to look after the "general welfare" of the population.
Rev,
Thanks for the link explaining the hidden costs of "defense". I just don't get how those who rightfully worry about our deficits and the insustainability of our present economic model can support the status quo of spending more than the rest of the world combined on "defense". Who is the enemy that justifies spending half the budget against? What is the threat that justifies paying for other countries' "defense", especially when those countries may be in better financial shape than we are? Is it really "defense" when we leave our own borders undefended while protecting others'? I'd call it international welfare.
Good descriptive phrase, frank.
It's a huge, yet I think, strategic, blindspot. It's as if deficits and debt created by obscene levels of military spending….do not exist.
I'm all for defending the country….but as you say…..that's not what all those bases and all that money is about.
Rev,
Even if your $1 trillion on defense spending number is correct, that's 27% of the budget. How is that the reason for all the deficits ? Why isn't the other 73% the reason ?
But I actually agree with you and frank that having military bases in 130 countries makes us overly responsible for world security. It's not about controlling the world, it's about defending the free world, but I'd like to see others carry their own weight more. The defense of the EU is actually up to us. Carrying out UN operations is actually up to us. It is a form of international welfare, as frank said, but who's going to step into the breach ? There really isn't anyone else.