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In honor of tax day, the Tea Party folks held various events to express their concern about taxes and to push for greater fiscal conservatism. Interestingly, the Tea Party seems to have had results already: federal taxes decreased by $173 billion in 2009 and the average tax refund is supposed to be 10% higher than last year.
Of course, it might be wondered why the Tea Party folks are so angry, given that taxes for those making under $250,000 have been reduced. After all, most people make less than $250,000 so most of use are enjoying lower taxes already. Because of this, it might be suspected that the Tea Party is a tempest about nothing, perhaps whipped up by pundits and a misconception of reality. Or perhaps the Tea Party folks are being manipulated by others, such as corporations.
However, even if taxes for most people are lower there could well be grounds for protesting against taxes. Lower taxes might still to be too high and hence worthy of protest. Also, there are legitimate concerns about how tax dollars are being spent (or wasted, depending on how you see it). In fact, it seems quite reasonable to demand that needless waste be eliminate. Where it becomes more controversial is when considering what spending should be cut and what should be left intact. These matters are clearly the subject for legitimate political debate. Unfortunately, these matters are often approached with hyperbole, willful ignorance, and outright deception. This creates serious problems in having a meaningful, rational discussion of the issues.
I am for paying less taxes. In general, I think I can spend my money more wisely than politicians. Also, there is the selfishness factor-I would rather have more of my income to spend on my needs and my wants.
That said, I do recognize the importance and necessity of both taxes and having a centralized system. After all, without a source of funding and a system to handle large scale projects we could not have things like national defense, effective law enforcement, large scale infrastructure, and all the things that make civilization and civil living possible.
The challenge is to find just the right amount to tax people so that the essential aspects of civilization can be maintained without robbing the citizens.
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The Tea Party is not primarily about taxes, but is mainly an attempt to revive the vision of the founders of the U.S.
Here is the “crowd-sourced” party “platform”:
http://www.thecontract.org/
Individual Liberty
Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression and free from excessive control over our economic choices.
Limited Government
The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country’s sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression, and poverty increases.
Economic Freedom
The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.
1. Protect the Constitution
Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)
2. Reject Cap & Trade
Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures. (72.20%)
3. Demand a Balanced Budget
Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike. (69.69%)
4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words—the length of the original Constitution. (64.90%)
5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning. (63.37%)
6. End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)
7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries. (56.39%)
8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy
Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs. (55.51%)
9. Stop the Pork
Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)
10. Stop the Tax Hikes
Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011. (53.38%)
What, out of all these points, is there that enrages the Left so much?
Nothing is more at odds with leftist ideology than the vision of individual liberty espoused by the Founders.
True-that slavery thing really irks the leftists. 🙂
Who doesn’t it irk? Islam I guess…
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1018026/posts
“Slavery is a part of Islam,” he says in the tape, adding: “Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.”
Hardly a shock. Slavery is part of the bible and also part of the Constitution. However, a faith and a nation can get beyond an acceptance of slavery. Maybe Islam can do this as well.
Boy is the Left gonna take a beating in the upcoming election.
And Mike, as far as taxes go, the chairman of the Federal Reserve–Ben Bernake–says they must go up:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040703116.html
“‘To avoid large and ultimately unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above,” he said.”
The unemployment rate was sub 6.5 for 7 yrs under Bush. The Dems want us to believe all 7 years were a fluke and that the ridiculous situation we now face is Bush’s fault. Wait until the elections come and the unemployment rate is still 9.7–and taxes are getting hiked. Oh–then there’s that colossus of a deficit which is soley the child of this administration.
Well, the deficit solution is easy in theory: get more income or spend less (or both).
All in all, I’d say we’ve been all but ruined by this spending. There is simply no good way out now.
The VAT Commmeth, C. Krauthammer: http://article.nationalreview.com/429359/the-vat-cometh/charles-krauthammer?page=1