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Is Obama really taxing Tea?

Posted by TONY CAMPBELL, Columnist in At TMV, Media, Politics.
Apr 15th, 2009 | Comments

I have read with moderate amusement about the “Tea Party” protests that are occuring today all over the country. As a fiscal conservative, I agree that President Obama is spending way too many tax dollars on programs that are questionnable at best. However, it seems that the overspending of the last eight years was ok with Conservatives because they chose to keep their tea bags in lukewarm water while the national debt and the deficit exploded under the Bush Administration.

I understand the historic significance of the term “Tea Party” but I would have to guess that the average protester may need a primer in what actually happened. Parliament needed a vehicle for recouping their financial losses in the French and Indian War. Since the war happened in the colonies, Parliament allowed the East India Company to have exclusive rights to sell tea in the colonies. Parliament imposed a tax on the tea that the colonists protested against in several ways including the “Boston Tea Party” in December of 1773.

The colonists had a tangible way of displaying their agitation by dumping the tea into Boston harbor. What exactly are the protesters going to achieve today? I agree that it is important for the people to speak out against tyranny but shouldn’t there be an impact from the protesting? These events are good for the camera, and maybe will be good for individuals to feel like they have a voice, but they are not accomplishing anything near to what the 200 men achieved that night in Boston over two hundred years ago.

Let’s find something that will make a statement. What has the government taxed to the point of protest? Cigarettes? Gasoline? Capital Gains? 401K? Income? Property? In order for a tax day protest to mean something, it has got to negatively impact the political establishment. When the People find that achilles heel, I will be there with you showing my support and working to change the tax and spend mentality of the national government. Until then, these “Tea Parties” are a waste of our combined time, effort and patience… besides I do not even like Tea, I like my Mocha Latte from Starbucks.

  • Ryan
    "... Obama is spending way too many tax dollars on programs that are questionnable at best."

    Which programs would those be?
  • CStanley
    The only actions that I can conceive of that would have the tangible effect you refer to that the Boston Tea Party had, would be the suggestions by some to 'go Galt.' But that's stupid too- first, it'll never happen on any large scale so it's still just symbolic, and then the reason it won't happen is that people realize that it's not in their own best interest to cut their income in order to pay less in taxes.

    Besides, we've already involuntarily reduced our tax liability from those things- loss of income as many have lost jobs, or had cutbacks in compensation; loss of investment income with the market crash; loss of home value as the real estate bubble burst. But then that loss of revenue for the govt leads not to less spending, but more. Go figure.
  • galtin86
    Interesting side note. The Boston Tea party was sparked because of a tax cut on tea, not a tax increase. See http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/history.asp

    "On May 10, 1773, the British parliament authorized the East India Co., which faced bankruptcy due to corruption and mismanagement, to export a half a million pounds of tea to the American colonies for the purpose of selling it without imposing upon the company the usual duties and tariffs. With these privileges, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade."

    In this context, a true "Boston Tea Party" may have been more apt in the Bush years!
  • HemmD
    Tony

    I've posted my rant before.
    Because both the left and right are cowardly, I get to pay $1.01 per pack of cigarettes to fund insurance for the S-Chip kids.

    I'm happy to take up the slack of the rest of you, somebody has to care enough for the well being of kids. What's the problem with the rest of you? Light up and be a humanitarian, It's the American Way.
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