Taxes and the Tea Party «

17Apr/10Off

Taxes and the Tea Party

Yesterday was one of the most entertaining days, politically speaking, that I have seen in a long time, which came to us courtesy of the Tea Party. Tea Baggers all over the country took to the streets to protest the taxes that they have to pay under President Obama, as well as protest the recent health care legislation. There was, unfortunately, very little factual information to be found at yesterday’s protests, and the media had a field day exposing these mental midgets for who they really are.

First things first, the New York Times reported yesterday on the demographics of the Tea Party. The story didn’t really present any new information, but it is relevant for the rest of this post. As we had already suspected, the majority of the Tea Party is white, male, middle aged, middle to upper income, for the most are part employed, and get the majority of their news from FOX.

As much as it may seem, I really don’t like denigrating the Tea Party members for being stupid. I would much rather have the Tea Party composed of people who disagree, but are factually accurate and can have a real substantive discussion on policy disagreements. But when you look at all these Tea Party rallies, as well as interviews with Tea Party members, and even listen to the politicians that support the Tea Party, they have absolutely no factual information to back up their positions. It’s almost like they are proud of their ignorance.

Along with the New York Times story from yesterday, the paper posted interviews with twenty self-proclaimed Tea Party members. The things they say are absolutely ridiculous. There were literally too many off the wall comments to even sit here and list. One gentleman said that he doesn’t know much about politics, or about Sarah Palin, but he supports her because she represents “real Americans.” I could never understand what the Tea Party means when they say “real Americans.” Are the rest of us fake Americans? If we like the health care bill and don’t call President Obama a Communist, Socialist, and Marxist, then we are not “real Americans?”

There was another woman, her name was Pam Fales. Ms. Fales said that she is upset with government spending. This comment would have been fine, had it not been for her next comment, “we need to stop spending money on health care and start putting more money into our military.” Ms. Fales is obviously unaware of the facts. With a simple Google search, one can find the annual federal budget. The military is receiving 515.4 billion dollars, along with another 145.2 billion for the “war on terror.” Aside from the fact that the United States spends more on our military than every other country combined, the next highest government expenditure is the Department of Health and Human Services, which spends 70 billion. This is a large number, but mere chump change compared to the money we spend on the military. And you cannot simply blame the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the large military spending; the U.S has spent more than every other country on their military budget for decades.

The ridiculous, inaccurate comments go on and on. I am not going to list them all here, I want to get to other items in this post and it would take me hours to go through all those interviews. As the New York Times story mentioned above said, the Tea Party members are, among other things, generally middle and upper middle class when referring to income. This fact makes the protests, in regards to President Obama raising their taxes, a little absurd. Based on the New York Times demographics of the Tea Party, these people are getting tax reductions, thanks to the Obama administration. It is a fact that approximately 95% of all working Americans are receiving tax cuts under President Obama. Unless all of these Tea Party protesters are in the top 5% of income earners, which they are not, then what the hell are they complaining about? These people were paying higher taxes under George W. Bush than under President Obama.

Congressman Jack Kingston spoke at a Tea Party rally yesterday. He mentioned a congressman that said, “Don’t these people realize that 95% of them are receiving tax cuts under Obama.” Referring to this statistic, Jack Kingston replied, “If you believe that, then you believe that the health care bill will give you better health care.” This comment is exactly what the left is complaining about when they say that Republican Congressmen are spreading misinformation to their constituents. I believe that Congressman Kingston is well aware of the tax cuts, but he can’t go out there in front of the Tea Party members and say that all of you a receiving tax cuts under the President. They have to spread false information in order to get these idiots to vote for them. There is evidence of the stupidity and misinformation coming from the Tea Party everywhere.

The Boston Globe interviewed a bunch of Tea Party protesters from yesterday’s rally at the Boston Common. One couple by the name of Valerie and Rob Shirk, drove themselves and their ten home-schooled children two and a half hours from Connecticut to participate in the protests. Mrs. Shirk said, “The problem in this country is that too many people are looking for handouts. We have to do something about the welfare mentality in this country.” Okay, Mrs. Shirk is allowed to make the point that she is against welfare, until we find out that the Shirks, get this, ARE ON WELFARE! The Boston Globe went on to inform us that the Shirks receive Medicaid for themselves and their ten children. The Boston Globe asked her why her family used state-subsidized health care and then criticized people who take handouts. Mrs. Shirk told the Boston Globe that her husband’s income simply wasn’t enough to cover the family’s insurance costs. I have an idea Mrs. Shirk, why don’t you close your legs and stop having children, this way maybe you could afford them. These people are absolutely unbelievable!

Next, I read about Gene Theroux. Mr. Theroux was protesting “the movement to socialism.” Mr. Theroux is quoted as saying, “Where does it say in the Constitution that there’s a mandate for all Americans to have health care? This bill will ravage the health care that I get.’’ The Boston Globe then goes on to inform us that Mr. Theroux is a retired Air Force sergeant, who claims to like his government-run health care issued to him by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, but worries about what’s going to happen when 30 million new people enter into the health care system. Can you believe this inconsiderate asshole!? He is saying that he likes his government health care, but god forbid all these other people enter the system, they might affect my health care. Could Mr. Theroux been any more hypocritical? He could care less about anyone else, as long as his health care is okay. These people are unreal.

Finally, there is Anna Kaczowka. Ms. Kaczowka had a quote which I think sums up the stupidity coming from the Tea Party. Ms. Kaczowka is quoted as saying, “He’s a communist and all about the redistribution of wealth. It’s just the minorities and the illegals who are getting the benefits. Everybody who works gets nothing.” The fact is, President Obama is nowhere near being a communist, or a socialist for that matter (here is a link to a wonderful NPR piece that debated how much of a socialist President Obama really is). And this idea that only “illegals” and “minorities” are receiving benefits is completely absurd and false. By the way, Mrs. Kaczowka’s sister was in attendance as well, she blames President Obama for the loss of her job. I wonder if either of them is aware of the stimulus bill creating 640,000 new jobs.

In celebration of tax day, I would like to leave you with a list of facts that can be backed up by references, which I have provided in the form of links:

FACT: Tax refunds are up 10% due to the stimulus package.

FACT: As a whole, Americans are paying less in taxes this year.

FACT: The taxes for middle income families (the majority of Americans) are at historic lows, in fact, their current tax rate is the second lowest it has been in 50 years.

FACT: 64% of Tea Party members think that President Obama has raised their taxes.

FACT: President Obama cut taxes for 98% of working Americans in 2009.

FACT: When the Bush tax cuts expire (which is what the right-wing is complaining about) the wealthiest Americans making over $250,000 per year will see their taxes increase from 33% to 36%, which is what they were in the 1990’s under for President Bill Clinton.

FACT: Americans pay much less in taxes than almost every other European country.

FACT: The idea that 47% of Americans do not pay any income tax is a myth.

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Comments (12) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Dave
April 17th, 2010 - 00:41

Wow, how do you say that 47% of people dont pay INCOME TAX? That is a fact!!! They might pay other taxes like sales tax and property tax. But, you say that the FACT that 47% of people dont pay income tax is a myth. This is incorrect!!
EveningStarNM
April 17th, 2010 - 01:09

Excellent Article…

But the teabaggers are just a symptom. Their extreme gullibility and ignorance demonstrate the utter failure of two things: our educational system, and left-wing marketing.

Ask any teacher who’s over fifty how dumb students are today. It’s not simply that they can’t spell. They can’t reason. They don’t know how to learn, and they have no idea how much they don’t know. That makes them gullible and easily manipulated.

Couple that with masterful marketing efforts by the right-wing as compared with the left-wing’s veritable silence, and you get an increasingly dumber population that can be coerced into believing things that aren’t true and voting against their interests.

It’s only going to get worse from here, because more and more relatively uneducated people are continually be dumped into the economy from a dumbed-down educational system. The older Tea Partiers are just the forerunners to the larger numbers of younger people who will replace them. And, contrary to his promise, Obama is doing nothing to fix the problem.

Has anyone heard a peep out of our new Secretary of Education, the Boy Wonder from Chicago who was supposed to have done such marvelous things there? We still have that disasterous “No Child Left Behind”, the crippled monstrosity foisted upon us by the right wing, which really had only one purpose: to produce a docile working class that is too dumb to ask questions, a task at which it has succeeded marvelously. But while NCLB was supposed to have been dumped by now, it’s still running strong, and there are no plans to end it.

There are two things which we must do to fix our country before we can do anything else: provide a rigorous education to our children, and publicly fund our elections. Progress in those areas is essential and necessary for solving all of our other problems, but we are making no progress in those areas whatsoever.
admin
April 17th, 2010 - 12:53

I’m going to have to disagree with you Dave. Why don’t you click the link and read the story that reinforces this statement.
admin
April 17th, 2010 - 12:54

Thanks
admin
April 17th, 2010 - 12:59

Dave,

Remember that there is income tax and then there is federal income tax. It might be possible that 47% are not paying federal income tax (although I think that’s questionable as well) that doesn’t mean that they are paying no income tax, there is a difference.
Amy
April 23rd, 2010 - 14:04

Excellent Article…

But the teabaggers are just a symptom. Their extreme gullibility and ignorance demonstrate the utter failure of two things: our educational system, and left-wing marketing.

Ask any teacher who’s over fifty how dumb students are today. It’s not simply that they can’t spell. They can’t reason. They don’t know how to learn, and they have no idea how much they don’t know. That makes them gullible and easily manipulated.

Couple that with masterful marketing efforts by the right-wing as compared with the left-wing’s veritable silence, and you get an increasingly dumber population that can be coerced into believing things that aren’t true and voting against their interests.

It’s only going to get worse from here, because more and more relatively uneducated people are continually be dumped into the economy from a dumbed-down educational system. The older Tea Partiers are just the forerunners to the larger numbers of younger people who will replace them. And, contrary to his promise, Obama is doing nothing to fix the problem.

Has anyone heard a peep out of our new Secretary of Education, the Boy Wonder from Chicago who was supposed to have done such marvelous things there? We still have that disasterous “No Child Left Behind”, the crippled monstrosity foisted upon us by the right wing, which really had only one purpose: to produce a docile working class that is too dumb to ask questions, a task at which it has succeeded marvelously. But while NCLB was supposed to have been dumped by now, it’s still running strong, and there are no plans to end it.

There are two things which we must do to fix our country before we can do anything else: provide a rigorous education to our children, and publicly fund our elections. Progress in those areas is essential and necessary for solving all of our other problems, but we are making no progress in those areas whatsoever.
Amy
April 23rd, 2010 - 14:05

Dave,

Remember that there is income tax and then there is federal income tax. It might be possible that 47% are not paying federal income tax (although I think that’s questionable as well) that doesn’t mean that they are paying no income tax, there is a difference.
George
April 25th, 2010 - 17:14

Thanks
Nick
April 25th, 2010 - 18:28

Great piece…

This was an enjoyable read, thanks. I thought this Tea Party thing was just going to be a fad when it got going last tax day, but it’s grown into a real phenomenon and just keeps growing like some sort of nightmarish beast from Hell.

I agree with EveningStar’s proposed solutions: better education and publicly-funded elections, as these two things would solve the core problem in the U.S. and get us on the right track. Unfortunately, the system seems too bent and broken to actually have any hope of implementing them.

More immediately, we can just keep standing up to the Tea Partiers and calling them out on their bullshit as you’ve done so well in this piece. The problem is that the right-wing media is so loud and obnoxious and the left-wing media–what little there is of it–is relatively meek and timid. Olbermann just makes jokes and does silly voices. Maddow does an excellent job of calling people out, but as much as I enjoy her light-hearted style it’s not really an effective approach when facing such a massive tide of ignorance.

If only Democratic leaders would actually have the balls to stand up to them, but other than Alan Grayson–who has his own problems–they’re all playing by the old rules of politics and trying not to ruffle any feathers. All those Tea Partiers are potential voters, so you’d better not suggest they’re anything less than good patriotic Americans who care deeply about this country’s future.

Democrats need to abandon the premise that they can somehow win these people over and get loud about all the lies and hypocrisy that make up the movement. Call them out for demanding less government spending while insisting on keeping their medicare as well as fighting two wars. Call them out for saying government should stay out of people’s lives on the one hand, but that it should criminalize abortion on the other. Call them out for claiming to be champions of Freedom when they won’t tolerate homosexuality and try at every turn to impose their own religious values onto others.

Just get some balls, is what I’m saying.
Eric
April 25th, 2010 - 22:19

Dave,

Remember that there is income tax and then there is federal income tax. It might be possible that 47% are not paying federal income tax (although I think that’s questionable as well) that doesn’t mean that they are paying no income tax, there is a difference.
Simon
April 26th, 2010 - 01:00

Dave,

Remember that there is income tax and then there is federal income tax. It might be possible that 47% are not paying federal income tax (although I think that’s questionable as well) that doesn’t mean that they are paying no income tax, there is a difference.
Dennis
April 26th, 2010 - 02:21

Wow, how do you say that 47% of people dont pay INCOME TAX? That is a fact!!! They might pay other taxes like sales tax and property tax. But, you say that the FACT that 47% of people dont pay income tax is a myth. This is incorrect!!