On Wednesday, April 15, 2009, tens of thousands of Americans took to the streets of well over 200 cities and towns across the country in protest. I happened to take part in the protest in downtown Annapolis, MD at the city docks. The weather could not have been any worse; temperature in the mid-40’s with heavy rains throughout the afternoon. Even with the weather being so lousy, it is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,500 people showed up at the Annapolis Tea Party.
On December 16, 1773 in Boston, MA a group of colonist came to Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act of 1773. In doing so, they threw the entire shipload of tea into the harbor. In 2007, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul held a tea party on the anniversary of the Boston tea party as a fundraiser. That day he set a record for online campaign contributions. Recently, while on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, CNBC’s Rick Santelli gave his now famous You Tube rant promoting tea parties across the nation. Well, many heard his voice and we convened on tax day.
Although, wet and cold, many Marylanders came from all over the state to stand up for what they believe in. Some of those in attendances were parents, who don’t want to see their kids paying for the stimulus bill and bailouts that may or may not work; small business owners who can’t afford to pay their employees and are forced to cut jobs and make sacrifices themselves; young American’s who are concerned with the direction our country is heading; grandparents who have lived through the Great Depression and see much of the same things happening today; small children who understand that they will be responsible for trillions of dollars in debt.
Taxpayers are tired of the federal government’s out of control spending, which has been going on far too long. Many people are lead to believe that the tea parties were a personal attack on President Obama. The fact of the matter is, people are equally upset with the spending of former President George W. Bush. Our politicians have drifted far away from the values and principles that once made this nation great and the people realize this.
Those who did not attend the tea parties or who knew very little about the purpose of them saw this as a Republican or Conservative movement, however, there was a strong showing of people who affiliate with the Democratic Party. Americans are tired of broken promise after broken promise and just want to see our country thrive. For one day, we dropped our titles as Democrat or Republican and were just Americans.
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I can't say that I agree with Polluting our already polluted waterways. I do agree everyone has the right to express their opinions, however some of those people out there with you are against all taxes. I think the Government generally does a good job, and in this situation I think they are doing the best that they can given the information availble.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how it turns out in the end, I'm not for the Bail-outs, however I'm not totally against them. Something obviously had to be done, and I believe what was done was an option. I'm at work, I'll post more later.
We are not certain, we are never certain. If we were we could reach some conclusions, and we could, at last, make others take us seriously.
ReplyDeleteIn this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
-Benjamin Franklin
To be far, there was no dumping of tea into the harbor. The picture showed the Delegate throwing the tea box in the water, but they retrieve it right after they threw it in.
ReplyDeleteThere were, however, some people there who were against all taxes. Both you and I know that this is impossible. When we do not tax, we are at great risk of Anarchy. The Federal Government does have to spend money. I believe that most people out there, including myself, would like to see our money spent responsibly.
The biggest problem I see with the bailouts is that it is being controlled by the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reseve is a private bank (which coincidently was founded by some of the biggest bankers in the U.S. in 1913) and has limitless power to do what they want without Congressional approval. There are, however, many leaders in Congress that continue to turn a blind eye to the Federal Reserve.
More government in my opinion is the wrong answer. No company is too big to fail. I am not an economist by any means, but I do have full faith in the Free Market.
Oh ok so the picture wasn't accurate. It implied that fool people where really tossing boxes in the bay! I was pretty upset about that. Glad to hear that they really didn't.
ReplyDeleteNow, I totally agree with you Nick about the people who want no Taxes and no Government at all. Although sometimes I do indeed believe a dictatorship would be better than the Government we currently have, I mostly agree with the concept of the US Government. I do agree that certain issues need to be resolved, you mentioned the Federal Reserve and yes I agree there.
I don’t agree with your comment with your comment about no company is too big to fail. If we had let every bank and company that was in danger of going under, be destroyed, I firmly believe we would be in a much worse situation than we are now. That’s my main issue with most of those people who participated in the Tea Parties, they say the wrong decision was made, however I’ve yet to see one semi-decent idea that could have worked instead. If you have one sir, please share. I’m curios to know.
I too have faith in the Free Market, but not a Free Market under the effects of Reganomics. Reganomics is the reason we are in the situation we are in now.
I'm always against protests whether I agree with the cause or not. I don't think they work and they often get violent. I think anybody who attended the tea parties should follow up and contact their elected officials.
ReplyDeleteBefore I post my comment how do you suggest for the Obama administration resolve this debt of the trickle down theory from 8 years of the Bush Administration? I don't want comments tearing down each cabinet member or our President. I was you alternative to fix a mess ALREADY spiraling out of control. Bush just put the spinning plates and sticks on Obama and then stepped on his foot and ran to Texas.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you have to say about the racist aspects of this "tea party" not saying everyone here had racial implications. Here are some pics of some signs, just like the one I saw with MY OWN EYE about tax being "tea and not kool-aid"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediatakeout.com/2009/32131-the_other_side_to_the_tea_party_tax_protests__what_the_mainstream_media_does_not_want_you_to_see.html
How do you bring Race into a Tax issue? Ok, I hope those signs are photoshopped, if they aren't that's just sad.
ReplyDeleteTeddy, I definitely would have been upset too if they left the "tea boxes" in the already polluted bay. All the time and money we have put into trying to clean it, gone to waste haha. I think we agree on a lot of the issues that were brought up. I do disagree that Reagonomics are totally to blame for the recent economic collapse. We have to understand the it was the housing "bubble" that burst that is the so called main cause of the current market.
ReplyDeleteThe von Ludwig Institute has some great articles on the current economic condition. It really gives you a great look into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Government Sponsored Enterprises) and shows how they started hiding their profits. Because they were backed by the Federal Reserve, they almost had an endless supply of money to lend, therefore, mortgage guidelines were very loose and almost anybody could get a mortage. I know this very well because I worked for a mortgage company right after I got out of college. Some of the loans that I saw going through that place were unbelievable.
Now, I understand that it is the American dream to own houses, but some voice of reason has to say that "there is no way this person is going to be able to pay back this loan." On the other hand, the individual also has to think of him/herself (and his/her family for that matter), "Can I really make the payments every month?" or "if I lose my job, can I still sustain these payments?" I don't think you can blame just the banks, or just the individuals, or just the government. We all had a contribution to this mess.
I guess my point is, that we can't specifically blame one presidents policies, because since Carter, this Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bubble has been building up. So, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Little Bush cannot not be singled out as the person to blame. But, I will say that the policies of the last administration really had a lot to do with our current condition. One can say, it was the icing on the cake.
So Freddie and Fannie are making all these loans and the banks are buying the derivatives (basically chopping up the loans and investing in either good loans, ok loans or risky loans. Obviously, the bigger the risk the bigger reward. This is where the troubled assets come in to play. I will try to find the link that describes what the government is doing when it comes to TARP and taking over the companys. But basically, the banks are going to come out the winners at the cost of the taxpayers (us).
I think we can all agree that this is one big mess (I could use some other choice words, but I am doing my best to keep it clean). I don't think we can fully understand the full scope of the problems. But, we can read and educate ourselves to come up with some answers. And this forum is great for us to get others opinions, and I truly respect everyones opinion because it makes me take a look at things from a different perspective.
Eb, there is no doubt that Mr. Bush put us in one heck of a situation now. I pray every day that Mr. Obama can get us out of this mess. No one wants to see our country fail or our economy fail. That would lead to civil unrest and perhaps revolution (which I can only see for the bad). But, I think we are just repeating history when it comes to the out of control spending that is going on. We all get on Mr. Bush for spending on the wars (which are unconstitutional in the first place), telling the American public to spend after 9/11, the original bailouts. Isn't that part of the reason we are hear in the first place?
During the Great Depression, our Federal Government spent money on public programs and raised taxes. Granted this helped out with building our infrastucture. But this only created temporary jobs. Once a project was complete, people were back out of work. The Great Depression lasted all through out FDR's terms as President. Unemployment by 1938 was still hovering near 20%! It wasn't until the end of World War II that the Depression finally ended. It wasn't because of the production of military vehicles and weapons. It was because we lowered taxes and cut government spending.
Strangely enough, I am hearing the same rhetoric today. We need to invest in infrastructure. Spend, spend, spend. I know we were promised a tax cut for 95% of Americans (which is true, he is going to cut the income tax, but there are so many other taxes that will be raised. Essentially, it is redistribution of taxes). So, this is why I am concerned. We can all learn from history.
As for the rascist at the tea parties. You are going to have a couple bad apples in the bunch when it comes to a protest. Unfortunitely, they do not represent the majority of the crowd. However, these people are usually the ones portrayed in the media or online. For the most part people just want to voice their opinions respectfully, but its ashame that you have a few people there who can spoil the real cause. I in no way would like to be associated with them at all. I felt pretty offended when Jeanine Garafallo (sp?) associated everyone there as rascist. But, that's her opinion.
I think I have wrote enough, and I do appreciate the response to my post. Thank you all! I look forward to healthy discussion in our future! Thanks again!
I don't understand why everyone always says this happened in Bush's reign. It did, but so what. We have a problem now and it needs to be solved now. It's unfortunate that Obama inherited a mess but that doesn't mean we should blindly follow anything that him or his administration wants to do. That would be ridiculous.
ReplyDeletePeople obviously took things to the extreme, and were rude, ignorant and racist at some protests. They should be ignored. Doesn't take away the fact that if you disagree with something you shouldn't gather to let the government know. That's your right and you should.
Also, I don't understand why opponents to the tea parties are STILL talking about it and refer to it's attendees as "tea baggers." Middle school age kids know that is also synonymous with something sort of vulgar and its just rude in my opinion and unprofessional.
Nick: Yes I agree. The reason I focus on Reganomics is because to me, it was the begining of the end. Once you start treating the rich different because they are rich, corruption really comes into play.
ReplyDeleteThose Racist people at the tea party were what I like to call, the Vocal minority. They are the reason stereotypes are made. The vast majority of people are not like them, however they are so damn loud and public it gives a false impression
Alicia: Heh, tea Baggers. Cmon, ITS FUNNY!!! (just kidding)