April 15th, 2009 was a historical day. The numbers are not in yet, but I suspect that the Tea Party protests drew the largest conservative-based crowd in history. Conservative estimates put attendance at 250,000 people at over 800 rallies nationwide. Not quite the "million man march" (that really wasn't a million men) put on by Luis Farakhan a few years ago, but WOW!
I attended the protest at Jones Plaza in downtown Houston. Early estimates say there were about 4,000 freedom-loving, hard working Americans there. There were also "satellite protests" in the suburbs. All in all, I would guess that 6-7,000 people are fed up enough to take time out of their busy day to protest, in the Houston area alone. What were we protesting? Don't expect to get a clear answer from the main-stream media. Still hopelessly in love with Obama and the purveyors of his radical adgenda, they got it all wrong. Sad, but not surprising. Keith Olberman had some choice words (as usual-the man is a joke) on what he called "teabagging". I won't define it here, but feel free to look it up. The term is pretty disgusting in itself, but that wasn't enough for 'ole Keith. About 15 minutes into his ridiculous rant, I turned him off. He was waaaaay too turned on about the prospect of "teabagging", and made over 15 comments filled with innuendo and sexual connotations. I concluded (not for the first time) that this man is a total putz! Not surprising, PMS-NBC allowed this lunatic rant. Whatever. I pay no attention to complete idiots that refuse to face reallity.
Here's my take on the deal. I have never been to a protest of any kind, but I have seen several on TV. The one I attended yesterday didn't look like a protest to me. Nobody was burning flags. I didn't see one flag of any nationality other than the American flag. Nobody shouted "Obama is the devil" or "Kill Obama". I have never seen ANY protest started with the Pledge of Allegiance (led by 4th-graders) and a prayer. The protesters were polite, respectful and peaceful. There were several messages that were easy to understand. Try to get that from your typical "save the earth" or "civil rights" protest.
The message was: Stop spending us into oblivion. Lower taxes. No more bailouts. Term limits. Read and follow the Constitution. Stop trashing America. The message was simple, concise and non-violent.
A lot of you may be asking, "What's the use?": "What good does all of this do?": Congress and The President don't care.", etc. That's just not true. Try as they may, they cannot ignore us. As a Japanese commander said after the bombing of Pearl Harbor: "I fear we have awaken a sleeping giant." Fits the situation perfectly. Besides, this general lack of interest in policy is exactly what got us into the mess we are in. Our government is supposed to be "by the people, for the people". If you are not telling your government how to represent you, what do you expect? Squeeky wheels get greased.
I don't mean to complain, but bear with me a bit. I have a hard time believing that only 6,000 citizens out of over 4 million are fed up right now. I heard "I don't think I can make it" or "I've got something else going": sometimes I just heard crickets chirping. No problem, I understand. Wednesday, April 15th in downtown Houston can be pretty difficult to make. Parking is a bugger-bear, and most people fed up right now are actually working to pay their bills rather than waiting around for a hand-out. No harm, no foul. The next one is Saturday, July 4th. Start planning to attend now. This is important.
I would like to talk about taxes a little if I could. Try this exercise: Take a look at your paycheck next week. Not your take-home, but look closely. Tabulate the amount of money located in the "FICA", "Social Security" and "Medicare" columns. Then, multiply this by 52. Depending on your income, this could be a pretty hefty amount. Now, I want you to imagine a beautiful spring day in April. After hours of calculations, and / or possibly hundreds of dollars in accounting fees, imagine breaking out the old check book and writing a check made payable to the IRS for the ENTIRE AMOUNT. We are not done yet. I want you to imagine the final destination of that money. Picture if you will, the "green jobs" that this will fund. Think of all the wellfare recipients that will be so grateful for your hard-earned money. Think AIG: Think of all the members of the UAW that can continue to work at a company under whose leadership would not normally survive the free market that our system is based on. Worse yet, think about the raise that Pelosi, Reid and 533 other members of your Congress just gave themselves. Then I want you to remember all those years of hard work. Think about your Social Security contributions (yes, go ahead and read that stupid "account balance" they send you every year). I know it's a stretch, but imagine turning 73 (or whatever the retirement age will be when we get there) and finally becoming elligible to start getting your own money back. Oops! It's not there. What do "they" do then? Sorry Mr. Smith, but you are only elligible for $250 per month for the next 40 years. I don't know about you, but this gets my blood boiling.
What's the solution? I SAY THE FAIR TAX! Please do some research on it. Let your voice be heard. In a nutshell:
1. 23% national sales tax to replace FICA, Social Security and Medicare (after 2 to 3 years this would probably be reduced to about 17%).
2. No more withholding - NONE. Go back to my suggestion above. Can you imagine not
having to write that check to the IRS? What would you do if you had 25-35% of
your income IN YOUR HANDS?
3. People below the "poverty level" still won't pay taxes.
4. No more 60,000 page tax code.
5. Tax imposed on new goods only. No "re-sales" tax when re-selling cars, houses,
etc.
6. Taxed on what you spend, not what you make. This includes drug-dealers, cash-
businesses, illegal immigrants. Everyone.
7. No more IRS. It is none of their business what we make, anyway.
Those are just a few benefits of a national sales tax, or "Fair Tax". There are many more benefits: check them out at http://www.fairtax.org/
Some people suggest a flat tax, where there are no deductions, just a simple flat rate for different levels of income. This is still progressive, punishes success, promotes class warfare and lets a government entity snoop into your personal affairs way more than should be allowed.
Here's the bottom line: Hard-working, freedom-loving Americans are sick and tired of footing the bill for corruption, special interest groups and total losers that have become dependant on government support. The Tea Parties told a little bit of the story, but not the whole story. If you haven't already, get involved. Tell your elected officials that they will be out of work if they do not represent you the way you want to be represented. If they fail, vote them out. Eventually, we will have a congressional cleansing, and this great country can go back to, well, being great.
I'm TEA'd off. How about you?
UPDATE: Over 8,500 people signed in at the Houston Tea Party. Many, many more weren't allowed to enter, or refused to sign up. New estimate - over 10,000 in attendance, not counting the satellite protests. PHENOMENAL!
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