The Tea Party (or TPers from here on) is not a viable party and most of them don't even realize why. This is a real puzzle to me as it should be obvious to everyone.
To be a viable party that will get things done, they have to have a vision for what they want. Herein lies the problem. TPers don't stand FOR anything. The TP consists of a bunch of angry people. I can understand being angry. There is a lot to be angry about. But TPers are simply against what they see as things going wrong. They are against taxes, immigration, abortion, gay rights. They are not for anything. They have no vision, they only dislike what they see. You can't lead if you don't have anywhere to go.
A lot of the impetus for the TP was anger over the bank bailouts. Of course, it turned out that the bailouts wound up not costing very much at all. of the $700 Billion that was put aside for it, the government only wound up losing less than $30 Billion according to the latest announcents from the Congressional Budget Office. The reason for this is that when the banks found they had to be owned by the Federal Government and follow much stricter rules, they suddenly found they weren't so broke as they thought after all. Amazing how that worked. I admit I didn't like the bailouts either, but it seems I was wrong about their effect. What I don't like is that we wasted an opportunity to put in place meaningful regulatory controls, that the banks have for the most part gone back to their old practices. But this is not something the TPers are making noises about, which they should be.
TPers talk a lot about tax rates being too high. Of course, our tax rates are much lower now than they were in the past. So I would like to know how low is acceptable. Sadly, I have been told by some that paying any taxes is too much. This amount of greed and lack of any social conscience just sickens me. How is the government supposed to pay for the military that is so important, for the social security and medicare checks, for education, roads, and on and on and on. People don't seem to realize just how much they take from the Federal government, and yet they don't want to contribute.
TruthandPolitics has a nice chart showing the top tax brackets since 1913. Right now it is 35% for anything over $311,950. this is lower than almost any other time. Between 1988-92,the top tax bracket was slightly lower, but you have to go back to 1931 to find a lower rate otherwise. But from 1917-1925 it was higher than it is now. So for almost 100 years, there have only been 16 years with a lower maximal tax rate than now. And how much higher has it been? During WWII the maximal tax rate hit 94% because we were in a war and we needed it. Even though we have been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, no one seems to want to pay for it. We keep getting tax cuts instead. In 1932, the tax rate jumped from 25% to 63% and went up from there. It didn't drop below 70% again until 1981. In all honesty,we don't pay nearly what we used to pay in taxes. It is no wonder that our government is running a deficit. I won't even get into the fact that corporate taxes have virtually vanished, while the slack has been picked up by the middle class. That is a whole other kettle of worms.
As far as immigration goes, theTPers are trying to cut their own throats. A passing familiarity with economics and how the country works indicates that poor immigrants are a sizable reason our economy thrives. The vast majority of jobs they take are jobs that Americans refuse to do for pay that is below minimum wage. If we paid people what they were supposed to get paid, if Americans took those jobs, our food prices would skyrocket. Orange juice would be a luxury. Unless people are willing to grow their own food, they should realize the US is using illegal immigrants as slave labor. This is widely known, and yet we turn our backs on the situation for cheap food.
Our country was founded on immigration. I would think a better alternative would be to make it easier for people to come in and get them to start paying taxes. But then we would have expensive food and we can't have that, can we? You can't have your oranges and your orange juice too. Choose. Humane treatment or cheap food?
Much ballyhoo has been made by the TPers about abortion being funded by Obamacare. This is a lie. Congress went to great lengths to ensure that no Federal money would go towards abortion. Yet the leaders of the TP seem to ignore that and intentionally spread lies.
The leaders of the TP know what they are saying is not right. But the TP is a party of anger and it is so easy to manipulate angry people. Anger clouds one's judgement and leaves one susceptible to manipulation. Decisions made in anger are almost always bad. People know this. but they are letting themselves be used. It is just sad that they can't see the cheats stealing from them. I mean, how clear does it have to be? Sarah Palin charges $100,000 for a speech. This amount is way out of line for speaking fees. If she truly believed what she was saying and she truly backed the TP movement, don't you think she would at the very least try to NOT bankrupt her constituents? The TP movement, outside of Palin's astounding speaking fees, is funded by primarily a few very wealthy individuals (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html). They are doing this so they can take control of a large section of government. They don't care about the political and religious beliefs of the common person. They care about lining their pockets. But as the saying goes, there are none so blind as those who will not see.
No comments:
Post a Comment