Wednesday, April 15, 2009

It’s April 15, and you know what that means! Tea Party Day!!

I have been wondering for many days just what point these “Teabaggers” (I still can’t get over the fact that these morons (or should that be "morans") don’t know what that means) are trying to make. Obama has already enacted a tax cut for the middle class, so it can’t be protesting going back to the tax rate, prior to the Bush tax cuts, for those earning greater than 250K, right? That doesn't make much sense. Maybe it’s the outlandish deficit that we have going now, and is going to be worse given all the money we are pumping into the economy and to prop up failing banks and companies. I suppose that could be it, except for the fact that a huge portion of the current deficit came from the George Bush administration, including the cost of two simultaneous wars which he decided to never actually put IN the budget but ask for “emergency funding” ever six months. I never heard any protests about the deficit from conservatives then. In fact, Dick Cheney (that paragon of financial wisdom) famously stated, “Deficits don’t matter.” So, teabaggers (*snicker*) can’t be protesting the deficit, right? Or else, they shouldn’t be, if they want to retain any sort of credibility at all, I would think.

Turns out that Steve Benen at Washington Monthly, had the same problem. He posted about it this morning.

WITH AN EYE ON THE FUTURE.... Over at QandO, McQ wants to help me understand why the Tea Baggers are getting together tomorrow. Since I've been struggling with the point of the Tea Parties, I'm anxious to get some additional insights.

Much of the left, Steve Benen serving as a perfect example, are missing an essential point about the tea parties planned around the country. They aren't about the level of taxation now. Instead, those attending them understand that with the massive spending undertaken by the federal government and the massive amounts of currency pumped into the system by the Federal Reserve, taxes aren't going to remain anywhere near where they are now, no matter what politicians promise.


I see. So, at some point in the future (we don't know when), some politicians (we don't know who) might find it necessary to raise taxes. Whose taxes would be raised? It's too soon to say. How much would taxes go up? No one knows.

But the mere prospect of a possible future tax increase has led untold thousands of activists, an entire cable news network, corporate lobbyists, conservative bloggers, conservative talk-radio hosts, and Republican officials to organize a series of national events. With extraordinary foresight, they've organized thousands of rallies to register their outrage, not at existing tax rates, but at tax policies that haven't been proposed, but might exist at some undermined point.



Well, I suppose that’s somewhat believable. Otherwise, it just looks like everyone is getting ready to spend a whole lot of money to throw a lot of tea bags into a lot of water, just to protest the fact that there is a fairly elected Democratic president, with a fairly elected large Democratic majority in both houses.

Actually, that probably makes the most sense of any explanation.

No comments: