Sequester, a TEA Party Plot?

Ricocheting Robert Reich Raising the Roof or the Debt Ceiling?

It was according to an Alternet.org article, "The Sequester as a Tea Party Plot, Sequestration grew out of a strategy hatched soon after they took over the House in 2011," written by not-so- rapid, the rickety ricocheting Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and current college indoctrinator (professor). I made the following comment in that article:

Robert, Robert, Robert, you are wrong, wrong, wrong...

Mr. Reich, in your baffling words, the Tea Party Movement goal is "to undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population." Nothing could be further from the truth, apparently something you are adverse to. Here are the six guiding principles of one of the most respected (in my humble opinion), Tea Party groups, the Tea Party Express:

(1) No more bailouts
(2) Reduce the size and intrusiveness of government
(3) Stop raising our taxes
(4) Repeal Obamacare
(5) Cease out-of-control spending
(6) Bring back American prosperity

These are radically different in philosophy compared to what apparently drives the current President's policies and actions including:

*Bailouts to his wall street and capitalist cronies and union supporters;
**Greatly increasing the size and scope of the centralized government;
***Being hell-bent on raising income taxes supposedly and unfairly on the rich,
but ultimately on all Americans;
****Ramming ObamaCare through Congress and Cramming it down the throats of
Americans, like it or not;
*****Year after year spending a trillion dollars more than available revenues;
and
******Impoverishing more and more Americans - the welfare, food stamp, and
unemployment rolls are dramatically increasing due to this president's economic
policies...

Sequestration was the President's idea, Robert. Is your short-term memory failing?

You actually said, “Tea Partiers use fear and anger in their war against the government – blaming the anemic recovery on government deficits and the government’s size, and selling a poisonous snake-oil of austerity economics and trickle-down economics as the remedy.” Yet, in the past few weeks “Fear and anger” were the precise tactics employed by the President and key members of his Administration in ginning up support for his failed anti-sequestration campaign.

Since when is living within one’s means considered “poisonous snake-oil of austerity economics”? What universe do you live in Robert? Have you spent so much time in Washington that you have completely lost your bearings?

In response to my comment, someone wrote that the TEAparty movement is a "complete astro-turf movement"? My comeback was:

The Tea Party Movement is made up of groups of patriots in communities across the country which are not controlled by Dick Armey or anyone else's army. They are citizens disgusted with he direction that both moderate George "Medicare Part D" Bush and the radical Barack "ObamaCare" Obama are taking this nation. They want sanity returned to Washington.

Both the Democrats and many Republicans, including much of its leadership, have succumbed to a seemingly incurable spending addiction. The only cure is purging the White House and Congress of these derelicts. Since they refuse to acknowledge their addiction, there is no hope for them. They must go. They must be replaced with men and women who have a balance budget mindset and are willing to make the hard decisions despite the political implications...

Another critic of my comments typed, "Federal spending has gone down under Obama, but they don't let reality get in the way of your thinking."  In turn I argued:

What???? Obama is spending more than a TRILLION DOLLARS annually more than the government receives in taxes. Are you kidding me? What kind of math are you using?

Mr. Obama and Congress (Dems and GOP) have a severe spending addiction. Look at the freak-out when the Obama-Proposed and Congress-Agreed Sequester mandated mostly spending reduction (not the necessary hard-core cuts) went into effect. We are talking 2%, which is pittance compared to what is needed to balance the budget. Our payroll taxes were raised by 2%, but there was no outcry by Obama and company. Limit spending rate of growth and cuts by the same amount and another Oblama  MANUFACTURED CRISIS happens...

My critics continued with comments like this, “"The deficit stems from Americans' unwillingness to PAY FOR WHAT THEY GET."” How did I answer that claim?

Then why not let the government stop giving us what we don't want?

·         We don't want stifling regulations.

·         We don't want energy policies that discourage domestic production of our natural resources.

·         We don't want funding of liberal propagandist radio and TV (PBS + NPR).

·         We don't want funding of baby-killing Planned Parenthood...

·         We don't want a Fast and Furious department of justice who won't protect our rights or pursue real criminals.

·         We don't want a country who allows illegal aliens to have benefits, while contemplating cutbacks of benefits for citizens who are seniors...

·          We don't want to continue to give foreign aid to our enemies, especially those that don't allow religious freedom for all like Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia...

·         We don't want our President repeatedly going on million dollar vacation flaunting his extravagance in the face of out-of-work Americans... when he purports to care so much for his fellow countrymen.

Please government stop being a nanny state. Focus on your job 1, national security, at which you are failing miserably... Our borders are not secured. We appease rather than oppose our Islamic - individual and state - terrorist enemies. We cut our military and not the fat bureaucracy.

The last comment from the article I want to address was one made by lenzy, “I don't see one tea party goon complaining in the comments in the story about ridiculous tax loopholes."

Good point, lenzy.

The income tax system needs to be reformed. I would like to close all the loopholes and I would like to see a flat 10-15% income tax on everyone. Or, I would like to see some across-the-board "fair tax." Obama wants fairness, what would be fairer than this tax?

FairTax.org describes FAIR TAX as "A national sales tax that treats every person equally and allows American businesses to thrive, while generating the same tax revenue as the current four-million-word-plus word tax code. Under the FairTax, every person living in the United States pays a sales tax on purchases of new goods and services, excluding necessities due to the prebate. The FairTax rate after necessities is 23% and equal to the lowest current income tax bracket (15%) combined with employee payroll taxes (7.65%), both of which will be eliminated."

The fair tax or something similar would streamline the revenue side of the budget equation. The expenditure side of the budget equation should be dealt with using Representative Connie Mack's 'Penny Plan' which calls for a 1% across-the-board reduction in all government expenditure for a period of 7-8 years until a balanced budget is reached.

This 'Penny Plan' could be combined with elimination of base-line budgeting and adoption of a zero-based budget approach. Every time the budget is done (which the Dems have made sure it has not been done for the last 4 years) every expenditure and program should be reviewed and justified before being included in the new budget. Further every department in the government should justify its existence or be shut down. For example, I believe that the EPA and the Department of Education, and much of the Department of Homeland Security should be scaped.

Yours,

one tea party goon...