The Tea Party comedy routine on Cincinnati's Fountain Square today is over, and the amount of doublespeak there was astounding.
I know you're interested in one thing above all else: Did they spill tea? Evidently not. I didn't see any tea being dumped in the fountain, despite their apparent threats to do so.
Apparently, some participants were upset about bailouts, but it was their guy (Bush) who bailed out the big banks with no strings attached.
More hypocrisy: one of the speakers also complained about the stimulus money supposedly being used on school metal detectors to treat schoolchildren like criminals. I'd hate to tell the BTPers this, but the rise of prison schools was also a conservative idea.
So we're supposed to repeal the entire stimulus law just because a school system squanders stimulus money on metal detectors? I don't like money being wasted either, and that's why the Obama administration took steps to reduce wasteful expenses like this.
If this was a rally against bank bailouts and fortified schools, I'd be all in favor of the rally.
Generally, however, it wasn't. It was about a small number of affluent individuals complaining because the stimulus might help the poor more than it helps the rich. The entire event was rife with class-baiting against the poor - much of it thinly veiled, but some of it rather blatant.
Perhaps the biggest hypocrisy of all was that they claim to have modeled the protest on the Boston Tea Party - even though the event turned out to be not really anti-tax at all. I thought they'd at least be smart enough not to involve the FairTax crowd. But nope, the FairTax cult was out in full force.
For those who don't know, FairTax is a national sales tax long sought by conservatives. According to Wikipedia, it would be a 30% sales tax. (This percentage generally grows a little each year, as the FairTax crowd thinks of ways to make it more onerous.)
One of the speakers declared, "FairTax, FairTax, FairTax!" - and the crowd went absolutely wild! As you'll see when I post the photos, this faction made their presence known.
In other words, much of this so-called anti-tax rally was spent advocating a 30% national sales tax. You can't make this stuff up: They actually had a so-called Boston Tea Party reenactment to support higher taxes!
In the BushWorld in which the BTPers continue to live in, war is peace, up is down, and higher taxes are lower taxes.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
BTPer doublespeak
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I hate to spoil this fine blog with facts, but the bank bailout was passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress.
ReplyDeleteIt had more Republican support than Democratic.
ReplyDeleteWell, no, that isn't at all true either.
ReplyDelete73% of House Democrats voted for the bailout bill signed by Bush. Less than half (46%) of House Republicans voted for it. In the senate, 81% of Democrats voted for it. 69% of Republican senators voted for it.
House vote:
Democrats 172 (yea) 63 (nay)
Republican 91 (yea) 108 (nay)
Senate vote:
Democrats 39 (yea) 9 (nay) 1 (abstain)
Republicans 34 (yea) 15 (nay)
Other 1 (yea) 1 (nay)
Out of all those Dems in Congress, how many are real Dems and not DLCists?
ReplyDeleteDid you ever consider that oh Scheffy one?
The number of Democrats should not include the DLC.
And Scheff never has to worry about spoiling anything with facts, because he never has any facts.
ReplyDeleteIt makes no difference to me, but if you feel inclined, go check the roll call, break it down and give us a full report.
ReplyDeleteTo say the FairTax proponents are supporting an increase in taxes is a bit disingenuous, as such a statement ignores the fact that they want to repeal the whole arcane income tax mess we've got IN FAVOR of a national retail consumption tax. They're timing is good as I'm about to sit down and waste hours trying to figure out my income taxes for 2008.
ReplyDeleteWhat's so wrong with simply taxing spending in lieu of taxing income? The uber wealthy sitting on mountains of money can laugh at the whole income tax model, because they've ALREADY got their fortunes and what more they DO earn they can simply shelter offshore or hire expensive tax attorneys to manipulate their income (thanks to our 50,000+ page tax code, courtesy of Congress).
Institute a consumption tax and these wealthy individuals get hit when they flaunt their wealth through spending. Plus you give all the employed people sitting on the edge of foreclosure an additional 30%+ more income to help stave off what might otherwise be inevitable.
Should I presume you're in favor of keeping our current system?