The Tea Party - Just Another Damn Corporation

March 13, 2011 - PRLog -- The only way to seek justice with limited liability corporations that hurt common American workers is to collectively use the greatest power we still wield as individual citizens, our vote. We can vote to raise their corporate taxes, but even more specifically, their capital gains taxes...taxing those who destroyed our economy and the middle class. Hit them in their personal wallets, not just their corporate wallets.

The problem is, the GOP (and by proxy, the Tea Party) wants to reward these people by completely eliminating capital gains taxes entirely. They've been lying, telling us it will good for the economy and more jobs can be created. Why would we vote for politicians who only have corporate interests as their primary concern? Which brings me to my next question...

Why is the Tea Party "incorporated"? Could it be that, just like the Republicans, they only represent corporate interests? Is that why the Koch brothers bussed them in to the Wisconsin protests?

Now the Tea Party would have you believe that they only want "smaller government", such as less intrusive government (like stricter banking laws), lower taxes (such as corporate and capital gains taxes on the wealthiest), less government spending (for the poor and elderly), and free trade, making for a "more friendly business environment" (but not for small "mom-and-pop" businesses, but for the HUGE multi-national corporations that outsource jobs overseas).

Tea Party "patriots"?

And if you read the Tea Party Patriot's Mission Statement, one of their 3 core values if free markets. This allows many to advocate strong governmental actions that promote corporate power, while also advocating against government actions limiting it. Now think of the free trade agreements that allowed our jobs to go to Mexico, India, and China (etc.), and then let that sink in for a moment.

Smaller government?

We have 100 million more people living in America today than we did 40 years ago, so now we also have "bigger government". With a third more people to care for and all the related bureaucracy that's needed to govern the government, it only makes sense. If a corporation doubled in size, would they only need half as many managers to manage twice as many workers?

What is this "smaller government" that the Tea Party and ultra-conservatives are demanding? We ARE the government, all of us, including them. Are they demanding that we enforce population control, or just reduce the size of the bureaucracy that manages us? Or do they just want to reduce the services that only the poor, sick, and old people need?

What exactly is this "smaller government" they keep ranting about? Do they even know?

Is the Tea Party demanding that with the naturally occurring proportionate amount of low-income, poor, and unemployed people (that would naturally increase in size and scope with any equally larger population base) that we should just drastically reduce the help and care that the disadvantaged once received? (instead of raising the taxes proportionately to the amount of wealth that the uber-rich has been hoarding over the years?)

When they say "smaller government", does this mean that those in the Tea Party wouldn't mind waiting in longer lines at the DMV to renew their drivers licenses? Or do they really mean cut off the heat for the elderly and food for poor children - as in less taxes for the rich so that there will be less resources for the poor, elderly, disabled, blind, mentally challenged, homeless, sick, and starving? Is that God's America, the one we "trust in"?

And where's all that down home good Christian charity you claim to have? Do you really think that enough cash could have been collected in the church baskets on Sunday mornings to feed 15 million unemployed Americans? Would the pastors have personally distributed these funds among everybody?

When they say "smaller government", is the Tea Party advocating for the size of government that we had in 1929 when the Great Depression first started? Or the size of government that we had during our Founding Fathers' time? Just how small should this government (us) be in 2011 with 309 million people now living here?

And what about all those greedy government workers...how much should they earn? Would the teachers be paid the federal minimum wage? Will the Tea Party send all their children to expensive private schools? Does the Tea Party also want to pay their police and firefighters that too? If so, and if I were them, I wouldn't call 911 the next time I needed a smaller government!

Smaller government? How many Republicans and Tea Party people have elderly parents who busted their asses all their lives and got paid piss-poor wages by their corporate masters, and now rely on Social Security and Medicare to survive? Will the Tea Party cut or reduce their parents "government hand-outs"?

The 1950s were some of the best days in America's history. Capital gains taxes were 25% back then - people kept getting rich and our nation became the strongest economic and military force than any other country ever had in human history. Today the capital tax gains rate is only 15%, but the the Tea Party wants them set at 0%.

Today the Republicans (and by proxy, the Tea Party) want to make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent, reduce corporate income taxes even more, and completely eliminate the estate and capital gains taxes for the uber-wealthy entirety. If this is allowed to happen, then the Tea Party is right...we WILL need "smaller government". Much smaller.

If the Tea Party truly believes that State workers are paid more than they are, then maybe it's not the State workers who have been earning too much, but it is THEY who have been earning far too little all these years. Maybe you too should have joined a labor union with collective bargaining rights instead of always having to beg that corporate stingy boss of yours for a raise. Remember Ebenezer Scrooge? They're all over the place, in every damn corporate boardroom in this country.

But if the Tea Party and GOP leaders still insists on "smaller government" (without raising taxes on the uber-rich), I suggest we start off laying off the government sanitation workers in their neighborhoods; those damn sanitation guys make far too much money anyway, right?

In a recent Tea Party newsletter they claim that "a majority of Americans favor spending cuts over tax hikes". This is deliberately misleading in many ways. What the newsletter didn't say was that most Americans DO prefer tax hikes, but just for the wealthiest 2%. (Why didn't the Tea Party tell me that?)

According to a New York Times/CBS News poll the general public's preference for spending cuts dissolves when they are asked about cuts to Medicare and Social Security. And a majority by a large margin said cuts in Pentagon spending was much more preferable. (Oops! Don't big corporations profit from defense spending?)

The Tea Party doesn't just represent average middle-class income hard-working folks who believe in the right to bear arms, strict immigration laws, and "fair" government. I believe in all those things too. And I don't believe most of the Tea Partiers are necessarily racists either. But the Tea Party also represents big corporations, whether the so-called "members" realizes (or admits) this or not. They might not like BIG government, but they like BIG multi-national corporate conglomerates (i.e the Koch brothers).

At Tea Party rallies you'll notice those flags that read, "Don't Tread On Me", as if it were government tyranny that was oppressing the masses. But who exactly is treading on who? Hasn't it been corporate tyranny that has been keeping us down? The rich have been treading on the working-class for centuries.

* Tea Party Patriots, Inc. operates as a social welfare organization organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.

* * Full article here:
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2011/03/tea-party-just-ano...

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