I Don't Get The Tea Parties
Maybe it's because I'm not the target audience, but I don't get the "tea parties" happening today. Egged on by the conservative elements of the media, people are apparently throwing tea into various bodies of water (and then quickly cleaning it up) to protest whatever. The official site says they are protesting the financial system bailout and "pork filled" budget of the "bankrupt liberal agenda". Okay, I hate to point this out to everyone all fired up about this, but those things were started under the Bush administration. The budget that was just passed was 90% Bush administration. The $700 billion TARP (and trillions in other guarantees) were enacted or requested by Bush appointees. How is this part of the "bankrupt liberal agenda"? Yes, I understand that the Democrats were in charge of Congress but we had a President that believed that the Executive branch could do whatever it pleased (see the original three page request for the TARP). There's no way that the GOP is getting away from these events as they were there from the beginning. Even if they were protesting high taxes, has anyone protesting actually looked at their tax returns? I did. My wife and I do fairly well. My effective tax rate for Federal purposes has hovered around 8% for the past few years. 8%. I'd bet most of the protestors are in the same boat as me. It shoots way up to 15% if you include Social Security and Medicare. Sacre bleu! I've written time and again that I hate the tax code (though it grants my standard of living). The protest organizers do realize that the original tea party was protesting taxation without representation, right? Everyone has representation in Congress (well, except for DC) so if the tea partyists really want change, simply elect somebody else. These protests are just as silly and useful as protests by Jesse Jackson and their ilk. It's just the other side. We do need to have a serious discussion about simplifying the tax code. Unfortunately, this is not going to help. Both sides are dug in and no one is going to get anywhere with stunts like this. Hopefully, we won't have a crisis before our representatives decide to get serious.
