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...
President Barack Obama wants no budget cuts. He has done everything he can to
create, to manufacture another crisis using the agreed upon Sequestration. He
has deliberately engineered those measly cuts (2.5% in rate of spending) to
hurt the most people. He wants to be sure that when any fecal material resulting
from the Sequester reductions hits the fan he wants to be sure the GOP to take
the hit. 
Someone wrote, "Actually, to
avoid economic collapse and recession spending is needed." That may be
true, but not government spending. Government gets its revenue from the
taxpayer. It has no money of its own (unless it prints it!) It produces nothing. It takes money from
the private sector. Government thwarts economic growth. Government stifles the
private sector and thereby economic recovery with its regulations and taxes.
Congressman Connie Mack's “Penny
Plan”, is a plan which will reduce the budget (when Harry Reid finally produces
one!) 1% for each expenditure across-the-board. In 7-8 years the budget would
be balanced. This is the best solution for long-term economic recovery and
stability.
It is a scientific fact, you, I, and every human being,
that we were once a fertilized egg, and over time we developed physically,
emotionally, mentally prior to, and subsequent to birth. The developing human
being is a person. As the person develops and matures, so does the personality.
A human being is still a person, no matter how small, no matter at what stage
of development, inside or outside the womb. You cannot distinguish, other than
at conception, when a person is a person.
