Tax Day/Tea Party Day

Are you a fellow patriot?

That's how I was greeted today, upon arriving at my local area Tea Party. I answered "yes, I am". I knew that it was code she was using (are you one of us?), but well, why not use that to my advantage.
I do consider myself a patriot - I'm an honest patriot. I feel the way to be truly patriotic is to speak the truth about your nation.

Let me say that I completely understand how someone could be exasperated with their government. I understand the idea of being upset over unnecessary spending - I remember the stories of the $3,000 hammers and $500 toilet seats. I can understand being upset about huge deficits. What I'm trying to figure out about the Tea Party movement is: What exactly are they protesting? Higher taxes? The Bailouts? Huge borrowing? Pork Barrel Spending? or are they protesting the election of a Democrat to the White House?

On higher taxes, I guess they all must make a helluva lot more than I do. It seemed to me that only the highest tax bracket was going to get an increase and it was only about 3%. Or are they protesting the "possibility" of new taxes?

On the Bailouts, where were they last fall when the Bush administration was in charge of this?

On Deficit Spending, do they not remember Reagan? Do they not remember a hugely expensive war? Again, where have they been?

On Pork Barrel Spending, I saw many Democrats named - but where were the Republican names to go with them?
On Obama - The hosts of our local event, stated that this was not a partisan movement, but I fear they do not realize they have been co-opted.
Over the past 8 years, I have been called a traitor, un-American, an America-hater, a commie - you name it. All because I voiced my feelings about my country and my leaders. Now the same people that harassed and scorned people like me - are protesting a President that has been in power for less than 100 days. But it's not partisan.

I guess my biggest issue - is when "protecting" the Constitution is mentioned. George W. Bush and his cronies used the Constitution to wipe their asses for 8 years - where was the outrage then? No, these were the same people that would tell you "I have nothing to hide" when it came to warrant-less wiretapping - or would say "I don't care what you do to the terrorists" when confronted about torture. I don't understand how that can be reconciled.

Tax Day/Tea Party Day

AIG and other madness

First let me say, I am enjoying my fill of all day basketball. This is my favorite time of year. I just wish some of the underdogs would have pulled off the upsets, that's always the best part of the tourney (looks like I wrote this too soon! Thanks to Cleveland State and Siena!). If you are looking for some good ball on Monday, be sure to check out Davidson vs. St. Mary's. Two of the nation's best point guards (Steph Curry and Patty Mills).

On to more "important" issues.

AIG and it's corporate overlords have soaked the American taxpayer for vast amounts of money. Then we find out that they are giving/have given millions of dollars in bonuses to the same dumbasses that had got them into the position in the first place, including several that had left the company. I want that job please...oh wait, any one that makes under $250,000 a year couldn't possibly do that job. So obviously, they have to pay them an assload of money to keep them around.



In response, the peasants have been threatening pitchfork complete protests, there are tours of AIG executives homes, and the House has passed a bill that would tax the bonus amounts of companies receiving bailout funds at 90% on amounts higher than $25,000. Now, I'm all for punishing these guys, in fact I feel like the general tax rates on people making a lot of money should be higher than they are (with no loopholes). However, I question the Constitutionality of this bill. In some respects, I wonder if House members realized that this wouldn't pass Constitutional muster, but got the benefit of a feel good vote to show their constituents. Bills of attainder are prohibited under our Constitution and I really don't know how this wouldn't fall into that category. Frog-march these guys out, hold a trial and take their money, I'm okay with that, but the idea of writing a tax law with the specific purpose of taking money from a specific group scares me, no matter how much they deserve it. Obviously, the best answer would have been to write it into the contracts that I'm assuming they had to sign in order to take the money, but of course that wasn't done. Seems like maybe we need to get some contract lawyers in Congress and in the Treasury. I am happy that this Wall St. debacle has caused some talk about the out of control nature of CEO compensation and the unbelievable discrepancy between CEO pay and average worker pay. These are very important issues. When you have companies that will give CEOs and other executive-types bonuses but are laying off workers...that is a severe problem and should be addressed.

Gordon Gecko was wrong, Greed is not good.

AIG and other madness