Partying like it's... 1773?

By Joseph Soto.

We all know about those tea parties that conservatives are throwing all over the country, right? We all know about the references some conservatives are making to the 1773 Boston Tea Party, right? Well, back then, it was about taxation without representation and stuff like that. I really don't think starting the world's first sustainable democracy through equal parliamentary representation is the same thing as protesting over a tax code that will probably HELP them. Do you?

Well, if you don't know about these tea parties, let me tell you about them! There are these people "all over" the state of Colorado and "all over" the country that are upset. The bug that crawled down their pants, the wrong side of their bed, the thing that is making them angry is President Obama's tax plan. They think he is raising taxes on all Americans and reforming our tax code in favor of the wealthiest 2% of Americans. They "know" for a fact that Obama and all of us liberals are turning America into one big fascist, commie stink hole!!

Well, the thing is, the things these Republicans and "conservatives" are telling them is for the most part, a load of... doo doo. They don't know that unless you are in the wealthiest 2% of Americans, you haven't seen a tax increase from President Obama, unless of course, you're a smoker. God forbid these people know the truth, right? Well, the truth is that we aren't coming up with this big socialist tax plan in preparation for class warfare. The truth is that we're simply going to let the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2002 expire. We're not Marxist, people. We just want economic equality for all. The truth is that income taxes under Reagan in 1981 were 70% for the top bracket, much lower than what we pay now. The truth is that the President is going to return the wealthiest Americans to the tax rates of the 1990s, which may not be that bad, only being an increase from 35% to 39.6%.

These tea party conservatives are complaining about Barack Obama's budget and tax code and other things, but I question why they are doing it. Didn't George Bush increase our national debt outrageously, too? And what for? Look at how we handled ourselves for those eight years. We were the guy on the tightrope, walking and making progress on fragile ground, until we... well, fell off the rope in September with the housing, credit, auto, and banking crisis. We DON'T have the education system our children deserve. We DON'T have the health care our citizens worked for and paid into. We DON'T have the funding and benefits that our soldiers deserve. We DON'T have the kinds of domestic and international programs our people and global citizens deserve and should get from us. President Bush ran up the deficit $5.6 trillion for pretty much nothing. At least Obama is trying to do something with what capital he can.

These are people that just can't or won't look at the evidence in front of them. The tax code, which consists of letting Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, isn't that bad. I'm assuming that the citizens who protested in front of state capitols all over the country don't comprise the wealthiest 2% of Americans. This is really ludicrous, don't you think? The President's trying to help you out, guys!

Well, I've said my piece. Now, what's yours?