What are the Tea Parties About?

We went to our first tea-party on Saturday, and it rocked! I've had people asking me for the past few days, "what are the tea parties about?" One Pittsburgh news site (to remain nameless) posted an article about the Tea Party on April 11 saying that it was to protest higher cigarette taxes; they took the article off the web site within 24 hours, thankfully, because the Tea Parties are about SO much more than that.

The Tea Parties reflect a growing movement among Americans (both Republicans *and* Democrats as well as Libertarians and Independents) who are concerned about wasteful government spending and excessive public debt that will (inevitably) lead to higher taxation. We are people who claim both education *and* common sense saying, "hey, the government has run out of our money", "you can't spend your way to prosperity", "printing money at a record pace will lead to inflation, which will devalue everything we have" and "surely more debt isn't the solution to a debt problem any more than more drugs would be the solution to a drug addiction." Or, as one sign I read said, "Its about the spending, stupid!"

Its all of that and more. Its concern about continuing government growth, because we recognize that the founding fathers wrote the constitution to protect us from a big government (hence the "limited, enumerated powers" that the federal government is *supposed* to have, with all other powers going to the state and the "people"); we know that (to quote Thomas Jefferson) "a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government that is big enough to take everything you have." We are no longer blind to the possibility that that can happen here, and are coming to see that it has been in the process of happening here for quite some time.

We see that growing government bureaucracy has never solved any problems or created anything that could sustain itself (for all the evidence you need there, see Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid which are entirely unsustainable programs and will no longer be there when our generation retires). Doesn't a "thinking person" have to wonder how we can afford government-run health care when we can't even come up with a plan to keep Social Security solvent? We see the prosperity that capitalism has created in this country, and we see also that raising taxes actually leads to *less* revenue because it takes money out of the private sector (where it buys goods and creates jobs) and gives it to the government where it is wasted and funneled into corrupt campaign schemes or pet pork projects that have no business being funded by taxpayer dollars.

And yes, its about taxes. We are looking ahead with the understanding that you *have to pay for* what you spend, and when you spend on credit (or DEBT), that is future tax dollars already spent. Besides the fact that it is morally reprehensible to spend the tax dollars of future generations, we are disgusted at the waste and the inability of our Congress to show fiscal restraint and responsibility. If you think there is no cause for concern, just look at the past and projected deficits chart:



Think taxes aren't going up, since Obama "promised" not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year (a promise already broken in several ways)? Think again. Tax Freedom Day this year (2009) was yesterday, April 13. That means that Americans who pay taxes have had to work every day so far this year up until yesterday just to cover their taxes. Guess what Tax Freedom Day will be next year? From the Tax Foundation web site: "In 2009, an unprecedented budget deficit over $1.5 trillion produces a date of May 29. This is the latest date in the year this deficit-inclusive measure has ever fallen. The only previous years when taxes and deficit spending comprised a similarly large share of national income were 1944 and 1945, at the peak of World War II. In the postwar era, this date had never fallen later than May 9 (in 1992)."

The Tea Parties are about all this and more. There is also the spirit of Americans coming together, like we did after the attacks on 9/11. You can really sense "we the people", like Americans all across the country are finally waking up and saying, "OK, this political nonsense has been going on for a long time, but its got to stop." We've had enough -- enough out-of-control spending, enough corruption, and enough big government control over our lives. We're ready to be the people that the founding fathers wrote the constitution for instead of just zoning out in front of our big screen tvs (the modern-day equivalent of burying your head in the sand) and hoping it all works out OK.

Go to a Tea Party, and you'll see what I mean! Talk to the people next to you, and you'll see that they are just regular people, like you and your family, with shared concerns. People who are willing to make "tough choices" in the short-run so that we can hand down a *better* country (rather than a bankrupt country) to our children and their children. People who would undoubtedly produce more sensible legislation than the career politicians we seem to have permanently installed in Washington. People who want to see real change, and not just hear charismatic politicians "talk" about it. We, the people.