Don't Spend Us into Bankruptcy--Have a Teabag

I love participating in the discussions here. Reading others' perspectives makes me think about my own positions and sometimes I've had to change them. There has been some interesting discussions in the news on the tea party protests. It's funny. I wasn't even going to write about them, but after the news spots and the comments I've read, I'm going to talk about it.

There's been a lot in the news about the tea party tax protests on all the media outlets. I watched one CNN reporter question a few of the protesters, cutting many of them off before they could complete their thoughts. Commentaries I saw all pointed to these protests being organized by Fox News and Republican strategists. They labeled the protesters as nothing more than Obama protesters, anti-government, right wing extremists, etc. Ya know, some of those people are exactly that, but I personally think that the vast majority are regular folks fed up with a government that spends too much and when elections weren't enough to stop it, they took to the streets.Here's an interesting side note on the CNN story that you won't see on CNN. http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/16/standing-up-to-a-cnn-clown/.

George Bush and Henry Paulsen started this. The big bailout that didn't do what it was supposed to. I called my reps to complain along with thousands of others back then.

Some say we did nothing at the time. Not true. Many of us voted against the Republican Party, and some voted for Democrats. I honestly hoped that President Obama would put a stop to it, but he came in and increased the stimulus bill. Then he increased federal spending for the new budget by more than $3 trillion dollars.

Should we have had stimulus? Yes for things that will generate jobs. Should spending be increased during a downturn? Yes, but $3 trillion, sorry it's now $3.6 trillion? The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan entity, said that this amount will lead to $11 trillion in deficits, an amount which is unsustainable. Read the article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_budget. Are they right? I don't know but to go from $450 billion to $3.6 trillion in one year is unimaginable.

Economic hardship is difficult for us to bear but unsustainable spending will only make it worse in the end. So 40% of us don't pay taxes. The average person won't have to pay for this, at least that's what we are all told. But the CBO said that to pay for this taxes will have to be raised dramatically. That means higher taxes for everyone whether it comes out of your income or not. We'll all get stuck with higher prices from trickle down taxing. Businesses don't pay for tax increases. They pass it on to you and me.

Democracy and freedom in action are beautiful. Everyone having a voice is beautiful. Peaceful and respectul disagreement is beautiful.

A long time ago, a Democratic friend challenged me to look beyond what the news media said about war protests. I did. That was a difficult thing to be open minded as the wife of an American soldier. But I came to respect the disagreements with the war and it even changed my opinion of our presence in Iraq.

How many will look beyond their personal feelings about conservatives and the rhetoric from news organizations and look at the blogs and Youtube videos? Here's a good one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpeScv6EPgQ. This is what Susan Roesgen didn't show you.

Many are saying these protests were funded and organized by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. It started with onine bloggers and got picked up by news outlets. The protest on 4-15 was not the first. Is this a grass roots effort? I think so. Will it go any further? Time will tell.