Tax With Your Tea, Anyone?

Yes, I actually went to a tax day tea party! It wasn't a very large one, but still, 500 people showed up and I was one of them.

I had my own sign, which I made, in support of the Fair Tax,which would replace the income tax and make things much easier for everyone, starting with everyone getting to keep their entire paycheck and never having to file taxes every April 15th. Please check out my hub, FAIR TAX NOW!

Anyway, like so many, I am fed up (Actually, way beyond fed up!) with how we are being taxed, threatened with more tax increases, while congress people get raises and perks, big executives are being rewarded despite failing, and big companies are being bailed out with no accountability.

And it continues. I'm no economic expert, but I do have some opinions of what's happened to fuel the public's outrage through some examples below:

• AIG and other financial institution bailouts - They received $700 billion dollars of taxpayer money, no strings or questions asked. Executives who failed got big bonuses, big parties were given, and, the rest of the money was spent and no one knows where. Some of it even went to overseas companies! This was the first big bailout and, in a way, the worst. The biggest thing that this did was to set precedent, as now, other companies and industries could now ask for bailouts and, if denied, could morally claim unfairness, just like Jimmy's brother who says to the parent, "But you let Jimmy, why can't you let me?!"
• Auto Industry bailouts -The Auto Industry, namely GM and Chrysler, came with their hands out next. And, while their executives were stupid in arriving in separate private jets, instead of renting a car or SUV together and driving to DC instead, they did have some moral leverage due to the AIG bailout and the fact that they were asking for far less money. They were asking for $35 - 50 Billion. Now, They did get a lecture, and while it was the right lecture, it was given by the wrong people, namely, Congress, the masters of stupid over spending and lavish self indulgement, and it was a lecture not given to the executives of the financial institutions that got bailed out, even though they deserved the lecture even more. This would be like asking your folks to loan you $50, then getting lectured by them about financial responsibility, when they've got extreme credit card debt and have just given your super spendthrift brother $700 no questions asked.
• Congress - Congresspeople have no business lecturing any corporate executive on financial matters, when they themselves vote themselves huge raises every year, have perks such as totally covered health care with no strings attached and no deductibles, guaranteed pensions equal to their salaries for life, free, paid for vacations, the ability to work as little as they want to (Just read Dick Morris' book, "Fleeced" . In 2004, John Kerry missed 40 days so he could run for president. And he was paid for all of them. Would your employer allow you to miss 40 days so you could look for a better paying job, and would he pay you full salary to boot? I think not.), and relative immunity from many of life's penalties for things like tax and credit mistakes, etc.
• Tax Cheats in key positions - A number of cabinet officer candidates had to back out due to not filing or paying taxes. And the current secretary who controls the IRS also had tax problems, dismissed by the administration as just a 'hiccup'. If it had been you or me, we'd be hauled off to jail! But he not only is forgiven and only has to pay the money he originally owed, but even gets to keep his job and can throw us in jail for making even smaller mistakes than the one he knowingly made!

There are also other issues, but I believe that these are the main ones. In any event, the tea party I attended was the first political action beyond voting or petition signing that I'd ever undertaken. And to be sure, If there are more tea parties in the future, I will certainly be there if I can. And I think everyone else should as well.

With a government and corporate bigwigs out of control and arrogantly trying to steal from us, it's time to take our nation back!

Please feel free to comment or vote in the poll below. Thanks for reading!