I'm not sure if anyone heard about the Tea Parties held throughout the country yesterday or not, but it's interesting to see how some covered the events.
In our local area, we got two very different perspectives on the Tea Party that happened in Evansville. One local affiliate referred to them specifically as Taxed Enough Already parties, as if the TEA was an acronym. They even referred to one demonstration as being specifically about local taxes being raised in Owensboro to pay for a downtown revitalization project.
I can't speak about the Owensboro demonstration specifically, nor any other Tea Parties throughout the USA specifically, but the real overarching complaint is about big government and limitless spending. Certainly those will lead to much greater taxes down the road, but that's not the overall complaint of yesterday's movement was about. Most understood that, just like a doctor needs to stop bleeding before he can operate, our country needs to stop the spending before worring about growing taxes.
The fact that they were called Tea Parties simply refers to a large demonstration protesting a grievance, just as the original Tea Party was protesting the grievance of Taxation without representation. Referring to the Tea Parties as Taxed Enough Parties is about like saying that I'm going to Kansas City to watch the game on the Nothing But Chiefs affiliate channel.
Sure, it's neat to make a sign with a message using the letters of another word or phrase, but it's not actually the name of the event.
So I'm not sure if this local affiliate is clueless, didn't do their homework, or is misleading the people with their reporting.
Another network affiliate was more on the mark, interviewing people that referred to the out of control spending and noting that this isn't about one party, reminding people that the spending craze started with President Bush and continues to this day.
It even went to the office of our Congressman, Brad Ellsworth, who displayed similar cluelessness as that of the other affiliate when asked about his view on the matter.
He suggested that the people at these parties needed to be more specific, and that not all spending could be cut. He did, admit that there is some wasteful spending in Washington...of course he forgot to mention that he voted in favor of EVERY ONE of those spending measures. And of course, his gem of, "I'm not a fan of tea. I'm more of a Diet Mt. Dew drinker, so if they want to bring those to my office, I'd be more appreciative of it."
Brilliant. A politician who thinks that massive amounts of tea bags delivered to his office is to quench his thirst.
Who are these alien life forms working in Washington????!!!!
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4 comments:
I actually thought McCain's "accross the board" % decrease was a good idea as although Obama's "razor method" is good in theory but almost impossible to use in Washington.
I got the feel that it was about the spending in Washington while still touching on the very local spending and tax increases in their immediate areas. I was in D.C. when I saw the news of the Maryland folks having the protest. Other than that, I didn't realize that there were others. Hope all is well. :)
If everyone in the USA stopped smoking I think the government would be in real trouble....I think its time to throw the tabbaco over board to wake up the American people.
Again, I'm not sure what you're driving at here honkeie2.
Let's set aside the overarching point of the post, the mislabeling of the Tea Parties on April 15th.
Are you saying that instead of having Tea Parties to peacefully assemble and air grievences, smokers should stop smoking instead? What should the people who don't smoke do?
I know that governments get lots of revenue from Big Tobacco via huge taxes...but don't you think that if everyone just quit smoking that they'd find something else to tax the heck out of?
The purpose of the Tea Parties was to say...Enough of the spending and taxes that will follow.
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