I am amused by absurdity in society, and this week I received from the conservative movement a gift abounding in absurdity: Wednesday’s Tax Day Tea Party.
The 1733 Boston Tea Party, which Tea Partiers Newt Gingrich and Sean Hannity used as a model for Wednesday’s protest, was an important foundational event for America. Colonists, shouting “No taxation without representation,” threw shipments of unused tea into the Boston Harbor in response to the British government’s three pence tax on tea.
According to the British constitution, no British subject could be taxed without their elected parliamentary officials’ consent. Since American colonists could not elect parliamentary representation, it was unconstitutional for parliament to tax colonists. It would have been lawful only for the elected colonial officials to tax the colonists. The Boston Tea Party was a result of the British government’s unlawful actions, and the event began a revolution of government and thought in America.
The Tax Day Tea Party Web site does not provide a clear mission statement behind their protest Wednesday, but it does feature a link to an article by Peter Roff which declares that “President Obama and his economic team’s proposals can be summarized simply as more borrowing to pay for more spending offset by more taxes.” The significance of holding the tea parties on the day that taxes are due can’t go unnoticed.
Bruce Bartlett of Forbes wrote of the tax protest, “The irony of these protests is that federal revenues as a share of the gross domestic product will be lower this year than any year since 1950. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government will take only 15.5 percent of GDP in taxes this year, compared to 17.7 percent last year, 18.8 percent in 2007 and 20.9 percent in 2000.”
Karlyn Bowman, also of Forbes, wrote of the public’s view of taxes, “Today, since about 40 percent of Americans either pay no federal income taxes or have no tax liability, tax dissatisfaction isn’t especially high.” She explains that 60 percent of Americans think the amount of federal income tax they pay is fair.
Facts paint a much different picture of public opinion on taxes than Hannity and Gingrich would have us believe.
The majority of Americans believe that the amount of federal income tax they pay is fair, not that taxes are too high and burdensome. Since 40 percent of Americans do not send their hard-earned money to the federal government, we must assume that a substantial percentage of the people who showed up to protest (though perhaps not 40 percent) also do not pay taxes. Why would someone protest against something that does not even affect them?
The important difference between Wednesday’s protest and the Boston Tea Party is that the colonists were protesting an issue of importance. What can Tea Partiers hope to achieve by protesting taxes?
The absurdity of the Tax Day Tea Party is that protesting taxes can accomplish nothing. If no one paid taxes, the government would be rendered obsolete, and so would the Defense Department and all branches of the military. How would America support the troops? How would America take care of its veterans?
I’m writing this column on Tea Party Eve, and all through the channels, not a conservative is stirring, not even The Louse (Rush Limbaugh), to predict how many people will show up to the protests on Wednesday. Frankly, it doesn’t matter if millions of people showed up to the protests.
This was an event designed to help the Republican Party reinvent itself — and despite the turnout (whether large or small), the fundamental flaws behind the conservative ideology of low taxes and small government remain. A few fringe conservatives exercising their free speech rights does not constitute an event in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party.
Stephanie England is an English junior and a Mustang Daily political columnist.
A mains stream big time well paid reporter asked Alice in Wonderland what she thought about the Republican Tea Bag Party and she said, ” I’ll never go there again!” said Alice, as she picked her way through the costumed people in hats and capes and bonnets and oh my! “It’s the Stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!”
Stephanie,
With all due respect, you have no clue what the tea parties are all about or the kind of people who attended. I would like to ask you in about 10 or 20 years from now how you feel about the gov’t taking your hard earned money and spending it carelessly. For now, you are just a college student spouting off.
You’re a pro-choice kinda gal arent you stef? why is that you only think choice is only acceptable for the individual when it comes to murdering a child?
The TEA parties were not JUST protesting taxation. Even “fringe” people will concede their willingness to pay taxes for Constitutionally justifiable government spending, ie the courts, the police, the military.
The TEA parties were protesting the government taking away their freedom their choice. By spending us trillions of dollars further into debt to expand GOVERNMENT, people are losing their freedoms. What if I don’t want to pay for medicare? Or social security? Or for 50 billion a year in foreign aid? Or for all the bailouts on wall street? The automakers?
Shouldn’t I have the freedom to choose private healthcare, my own retirement plan, whether or not to contribute to overseas aid, to make a deposit in a bank, to buy a car I deem acceptable?
The reason only 40% think the tax system is unfair is because the top 40% pay 93% of all taxes.
Once again Stef you display your narrow minded analysis of an issue thats relatively simple.
I have learned from your opinion piece that peaceful dissent through public protest is an activity to mock, as long as you disagree with the cause. When causes you agree with march down the streets (eg. green movements, gay pride, immigrant rights, etc.), it is a symbol of patriotic pride for diversity and an empowered society. When the cause opposes your views it is an absurdity. It is embarrassing that respectful discourse is no longer tolerated in this society. Whether you agree with an opinion or not, judge it on it’s merits not on the voracity of the names that it is called.
Stephine, you totally missed the point of the tea party. It was not protesting taxes. It was protesting the wasteful spending the government has done with the tax money they collect. The stimulus is a joke, it’s just throwing more money at the problem to make it go away when we already have a huge debt. People are starting to see this now and they don’t like what they see. So what do you do when you think something is wrong? Protest! It was peaceful, just like the many Anti-war protests the left have been praising. So I guess if you have dissent it can only be against the right, huh? If this was put up by the left, I bet you would be chomping at the bit to tell everyone how great the tea party was.
Hey Steph, whenever you campaign on (for all intents and purposes) robbing peter to pay paul, you will always have paul’s vote.
The people at the TEA parties were representing peter, the ever shrinking, government funding, productive members of our society. But you wouldn’t know a peter if he sat in your lap.
Yep that Obama guy sure is a leader.
I was actually interested in your article for the first three paragraphs, it almost looked like you were reaching a logical argument. Sadly, you failed to connect the obvious dots and I felt like banging my head into the wall. If you believe that those people were protesting taxation as a whole, you should probably take a minute and watch something besides Keith Olbermann.
No one is in objection to paying taxes. While the people who were protesting do in fact have physical representation in congress, many believe it to be disproportionate. This has become a huge issue in light of the stimulus package. Of the citizens who did in fact pay taxes in the last year, a large proportion of them seem to be in opposition of how their money is being spent (as evidenced by recent events, not just the tea parties). Keep in mind that anyone can vote for government spending, but not everyone can pay for it. The GDP numbers you presented do not illustrate a relevant point. It is not how much is being taken, it is who it is being taken from. Your hypothesis of what portion of the 40% population did in fact attend the protest is speculation only and in no way gives your argument weight. I am not saying what is right and wrong, this is just observance.
For a writer who calls on others to be less ignorant, I find it funny that you have no real grasp of your target’s concerns. It would be one thing if you were to disagree on principals, but you clearly do not understand the issue at hand. If I were to write an article condemning a political event, you could bet that I would spend sufficient time researching it.
“Why would someone protest against something that doesn’t even affect them?”
This is one of the stupidest statements I’ve ever read in a publication. People protest against things that don’t affect them all the time – do you recall ‘free Tibet’
The idea that someone who isn’t required to pay taxes shouldn’t be concerned about them is also preposterous – most of these people will end up paying income taxes at some point in their lives.
This article looks like it’s written by a high schooler. Besides the income tax there is still sales tax, trade tariffs, business taxes and taxes on goods like gasoline, tobacco, and thousands of other things you’ve simply failed to even recognize. Without the personal income tax, our Country would make enough in other taxes to be at early 1990s level income – sure, we wouldn’t be able to finance wars abroad but I don’t think that’s something most people would mind.
this article is swill. And BTW I think the tea parties are retarded as well, but I think this article is even worse.