Today is April 15, Tax Day here in the USA, and I just returned from the local Tax Day Tea Party held at Covell Lake. It was pretty inspiring to see how many people turned out for it; it was announced from the podium that there was an estimated 3,500 in attendance, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were more. I wish I’d thought to take a camera along, but…
The speaker at the podium (I have no idea who it was) said that the rally was truly a grass-roots effort, tied to no political party, and as such there were no politicians who would be speaking at the event. I had to cheer for that because as much as I loathe what is happening through the Obama Administration, the last few years with George W. Bush in office weren’t much better. Politics in America is sick, and in dire need of a cure. I hope that these Tea Parties will be the beginning of that cure.
I’m sure that President Obama is sitting on his throne in the Oval Office thinking how silly it all is, because he’s already put the fix in so the middle class gets a bigger refund and has less taken out of their checks for FICA. And besides, he’s only doing it to fix the mess that was left for him by the previous administration. I take issue with the current situation for two reasons: One, the problem isn’t with the now, it’s when the bill comes due. Congress and the President have passed this so-called “Stimulus Package” that obligates us, our children and grandchildren for money that’s to be spent right now on things that we as a country would do better without. And forecasts say that this is only the first round of such spending, and obligation, and the debt being heaped upon the backs of future Americans. The burden of that debt will increase taxes, and will make all of us less free when that debt comes due. And when you think of who it is that owns that debt, it makes you wonder.
Secondly, as one of the speakers at today’s Tea Party so aptly put it, it is “taxation without deliberation”; more accurately, it is taxation and obligation without deliberation. Obama’s “Stimulus Package” was so huge and ramrodded through the House & Senate so fast that the legislation wasn’t even read by most of the people voting on it. Obama told them all that the need was so urgent that there wasn’t time for all that; they just needed to get it passed. And with the majorities in the House & Senate in lock-step with him, it was done, and done without all that pesky debate that brings up so many unpleasant things that they’d rather not focus on.
As the Tea Parties across the country draw millions of people, the President is going to get in front of his teleprompter and lie to us once again, saying his plan is for the best and everything will be alright. He’ll pooh-pooh all who took part in the mock tea dumpings and tell us that his plan is already working to make things better for the middle-class. I have to admit that my tax return is larger this year than I expected, but that doesn’t change the fact that my employer is being hit harder by taxes and as a result has decided against adding equipment and capacity and personnel this year. And he is most assuredly not the only one in this country who has made that decision.
So there are a half-dozen or so people that might have had an opportunity at a better job at a great small business, but won’t. And there are several companies that build equipment that might have had an opportunity to sell us the equipment and services and consumables to put that new equipment to work, but won’t. And it’s all in the name of what President Obama sees as an ‘unfairness’ in the capitalistic economic system that made this country great.