I probably should've posted this a week or two ago, but oh well. It probably doesn't matter, as it doesn't seem as though very many people are reading this blog anyway...lol.
I get really annoyed by Republicans and Tea Partiers who constantly complain about being "taxed to death." If they think their taxes are high, they should go to Europe or Australia to gain some perspective. Americans pay some of the lowest (if not the lowest) tax rates in the industrialized world. And I know this may be hard to believe because everyone knows that Democrats are tax and spenders (note sarcasm), but taxes are actually LOWER under OBAMA than they were under BUSH. Yes, that's right. Obama lowered your taxes. He didn't raise them. Let's not forget that the last time we had a budget surplus was under Clinton. I love to point that out.
Tea Partiers often quote Patrick Henry and esteem the Constitution and founding fathers of our country. But if they did their homework they would know that Patrick Henry was actually against replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution. He was not a Constitutionist. He was also not your every day Joe middle class. He was born into a wealthy Virginia family. Nearly all of the founding fathers were men of wealth and high social position. They considered themselves to be of the elite gentry in America. And many of them did not like the idea of giving the vote to less wealthy and educated Americans. In fact, several of them were in favor of the Congress electing the president. And in the original Constitution only white men who owned a minimum amount of property were allowed to vote. Hmmm....so what do you anti-establishment, elitist-hating Tea Partiers have to say about that? You are against elitism, yet the men you honor and esteem were elitists.
Don't get me wrong--I think what the founding fathers did was nothing short of extraordinary. They risked their lives to form the Continental Congress (at the risk of treason against the British government), and managed to win a war against the most powerful country in the world at that time (with some help from the French--which most Americans conveniently forget). Then after the war they managed to write the most progressive document the world had ever seen at that time, despite tons of squabbling due to trying to make thirteen different colonies/states happy. I have nothing but respect for the founding fathers. But let's not romanticize them.
And let's also remember why the Colonial Americans were against taxation. As colonies, they had their own colonial legislative bodies which passed bills concerning taxation. And they were fine with this. What they were not okay with was the British Parliament passign laws that additionally taxed them as they had no representitives in the Bristish Parliament. They tried to get Parliament to either give them representation or to repeal the taxes. Britian would do neither. Things slowly escalated, and eventually most Americans realized that Britain was not willing to compromise or concede anything. And then the whole quartering British troops at the American's expense during peacetime aggrivated them even more. Voila, the American Revolution began.
Another thing that pisses me off is all these conservative politicians acting like voting for the stimulus plan was comparable to treason. Let's not forget that this was a bi-partisan vote, and that most economists and financial analysts thought and still think the stimulus was absolutely needed. If the stimulus hadn't passed, things would be a whole lot worse than they currently are. Unemployment would be even worse--the stimulus saved many people's jobs. I'm sure those people are thankful for the stimulus (or at least they should be).
The stimulus also made it possible for the unemployed to afford their COBRA insurance by greatly subsidizing it. My dad was one of those laid off, and had it not been for this, he would've been uninsured because there's no way anyone on unemployment can afford to pay $500+ a month for health insurance.
I certainly am not thrilled that the banks got a huge bailout--especially when they are the ones most responsible for this mess. I would love to say, "let them go under--it serves them right!" But if they went under, they would've dragged the rest of the country down with them. Can you say Great Depression #2? Sure things suck now, but they would suck a whole lot worse without the bailout and the stimulus.
I'm a fiscally conservative Democrat, and I don't like to spend money that we don't have. I especially don't like to be beholden to countries like China for billions of dollars in loans. But sometimes you've gotta bite the bullet and do unpleasant things for the greater good.
Thanks to the mini-bailout of the U.S. auto industry, they are getting back on track and have re-hired thousands that were laid off. This is a good thing. Not just for those people, but for all the small businesses that supply the auto industry.
Another thing I'd like to know is where were all these rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth anti-establishment, stimulus-hating Tea Partiers when the Bush administration was racking up billions of dollars in national debt to finance the war in Iraq? Most of our current deficit is due to that--not the stimulus/bailouts.
Here's what I ask of people before they go off on political rampages--read up. Get the facts--not some slanted opinion of a person or organization that clearly has a political agenda. Educate yourself before you go out there protesting or complaining. Ignorance is not bliss.
