Tea Parties

Hi Everyone:

Lately there have been a lot of tea parties around the country. Tea parties are so named due to the reference to the 1773 Boston tea party, where Bostonians dumped English tea into the Boston harbor to protest the high taxes England put on the tea. But are today's tea parties about taxes or an increase in US debt? I believe it is about both. Are today's tea parties really representative of the American people or a select few? Granted nobody likes an increase in taxes in any shape or form or an increase in the national debt. But why are there tea parties now and not in the recent past?

Let's review the recent past:

-When Ronald Reagan was president, our national debt went from $85 billion to $225 billion and there were no tea parties.

-When George H.W. Bush campaigned for president, he was asked about tax increases and he famously said, read my lips, no new taxes. He didn't live up to his promise and did indeed increase taxes and there were no tea parties. Why? Oh and don't forget that the national deficit in his last year in office went up to $399 billion and again, there were no tea parties.

-By the end of Bill Clinton's eight years as president, he turned the national deficit of into a $231 billion SURPLUS! This was the largest surplus in US history.

-When George W. Bush became president, he turned the largest surplus into the largest deficit in our history. When you read about the deficit under his watch you will see 2 numbers: $1 trillion and $10 trillion dollars. Well which one is correct? The correct number is $10 trillion. Why? Bush kept the war spending of the 2 current wars off the books. Don't forget that the greatest recession since the great depression began during his watch due to his economic policies. It was Bush who originally wanted to bailout AIG and other big banks and investment firms with hundreds of billions of our tax dollars. Again, there was not one tea party during his eight years in office. Why not?

Now when Obama took office, according to the so-called "Tea-Bag Revolution," it's all his fault that the country is going bankrupt. What? Obama inherited the great recession and all the problems associated with it. Now there are tea parties across this country. Why now and not before? The truth about these tea parties is on the conservative web site AmericanMajority.org. There it states that they are pushing for lower corporate taxes. If you lower corporate taxes during this recession who makes up that loss in revenue? There is nothing about people's incomes taxes or payroll taxes or small business tax breaks in their web site. Small businesses are the backbone of this country.

As a side note, during the recent Governors race in New Jersey, part of Republican Chris Christie's platform was to reduce property and school taxes. Apparently the majority of voters believed him and Christie won, beating incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine. About a week later, Christie viewed New Jersey's budget and he stated that he would probably not be able to lower the taxes after all. There have been no tea parties, why not?

Obviously the tea parties were formed by the Republican/Conservative parties to voice their disapproval of anything Obama does to try to help this country out of the financial mess he inherited. This makes no sense since they never said boo about the deficits of Reagan, Bush and Bush. Why not? It seems that it was alright for their party leaders to have deficits but when the other party has a deficit it is an all out war against it. Someone speaks with a forked tongue. There is no common sense to the tea parties when it is always one sided.

I believe that everyone on both sides of the aisle should work together to solve our financial problems and get off their high horses!!!!! Both sides have worked together previously and they should work together again.

Common sense rules.

Til next week.