Thursday, April 16, 2009
I missed last year’s protest. Fox News must not have covered it. Surely it happened.
Flag-waving protesters last April packed town squares to denounce out-of-sight deficits and unaccounted-for dollar signs.
Surely it happened: an orchestrated national repudiation of a president and his political enablers in Washington.
That is, surely it happened last Tax Day, before the repudiation that happened on Election Day.
If all this didn’t happen last April, and if you hear what the town-square speakers say this April, you’d think the guy who arrived in January, Barack Obama, invented deficit spending. Which, if you listen to Fox News, most surely he did.
As he caused the financial system meltdown. As he caused the collapse of housing and the auto industry. As he caused the 8.5 percent national unemployment rate.
That may have been the case in each instance, but I missed it. What I did see was:
Our government was putting tax cuts, particularly for those of considerable means, above the business of balancing the books. This happened not when the economy was in dire straits and needed triage. It happened when one party controlled the government and could, well, do what it wished.
I saw our government roll tanks into a foreign land based on false claims, then put all the expenses on a credit card known as “supplemental items” — off-budget.
Combine Iraq with invading and occupying Afghanistan, and we’ve spent $536 billion — headed to a trillion dollars — and with no clue how to recover the costs.
Those costs weren’t reflected in the $482 billion deficit Obama inherited, part of a doubling of the national debt over the preceding eight years, now at $11 trillion.
Surely protesters were gathered denouncing these matters last April. Surely they were worried about passing costs onto future generations when they, as taxpayers, could have ponied up for the “onward march of freedom.” Then again, they could have and Fox News didn’t cover it.
What Obama has done as president sounds outlandish to some. He has borrowed to pay for highways, schools and infrastructure. Sort of like what we have been doing in Iraq.
Iraq has its problems, yes. As do we.
Ever since tax-cut maven Ronald Reagan winked and grinned through the blossoming of runaway deficits, we’ve found reasons not to deal with the infrastructure that makes this country operate smoothly.
The tax-day protesters probably think what Reagan did was just fine, cutting taxes and then shifting spending priorities from domestic needs to military needs.
They’ll say the largest peacetime defense buildup in American history was worth every dime. So, why wouldn’t one want to pay for it with one’s own dime?
An actual fiscal conservative
They’ll denounce the tax-and-spend liberals, like Jimmy Carter.
Yes, Carter, the president who made so many enemies with domestic spending cuts. What? Don’t recall? It’s probably because Fox News wasn’t around to report it.
Enemies were made with the “Carter hit list” — federal spending projects the administration determined the nation could do without. Carter was trying to rein in the deficit, while dealing with a reeling economy.
Barack Obama says the deficits must and will be addressed, but right now the nation’s economic swoon must be arrested.
Call me crazy, but I actually find it refreshing that people are protesting — now — about deficits. It always intrigued me as to why so-called fiscal conservatives were so mute on the matter, say, last April.
Wednesday, Obama made a point to highlight the tax breaks built into his stimulus package — maybe to placate the Tea Party honkers. I wish he hadn’t.
Dating back to Reagan, with the winking consent of the governed, we’ve bought more government than we want to pay for, while cutting taxes on a whim.
Deficits? The issue isn’t taxation without representation. It’s misrepresentation about the function of taxation.
John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com.
Comments
By There is no left-right paradigm
Apr 20, 2009 9:31 AM | Link to this
There is only one party in this country, led by two approved crime boss families for the last 21 years, the Bushes and the Clintons.
I was at the protest this year, and I would have been at the one last year, had it been organized. The stealing was better concealed last year, I guess.
The real truth is nowhere to be found, but if it is out there, it is probably much more closely approximated here:
http://www.infowars.com/media/obamahq.html
(Copy and paste).
By Virginia Crilley
Apr 17, 2009 3:50 PM | Link to this
Thank you, John. Your columns are always well thought out with specific truths that are usually glossed over.
I look forward to reading your work every time because I know it won't just be "talking points", but will try to get at the root of the issues.
We here in Waco are lucky to have someone like you!
By TaxMeGood
Apr 17, 2009 3:37 PM | Link to this
The government will not be fixed until it is really good and broken (as in broke). More and more money will be printed until inflation spirals out of control. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, dogs and cats sleeping together, real end-of-the-world stuff (this last bit I stole from Ghostbusters). Anyway, point is, we all want our $ problems fixed without it costing us any of our $. Are we just as hypocritical as the jokers we put in office?
By DDA
Apr 17, 2009 12:40 AM | Link to this
Three cheers for you, John!! Very well stated. I confess, it is hard to suppress a chuckle at the "moral outrage" of the same people who, having voted twice for W., and having readily joined the choir of Repubican propagandists in charging anyone who questioned the war in Iraq (a war waged, for the first time in American history, on credit!) as unpatriotic, now renew their charges of treason because some of us, cursed with more than just half a brain, dare to challenge the eternal verities of the same laissez-faire economics that got us into this mess. I look forward to your second volume. Keep writing!
By Texas TruthSquad
Apr 16, 2009 6:43 PM | Link to this
United States Tax Menu (Ala Carte)
1. Income Taxes (up to 34% of all you can earn
2. Texas State Sales tax 8.025% of all you can spend
3. Property Taxes 3% of what you have already earned and own.
4. Excise taxes (federal and state) on everytthing sinful.
5. Fishing license, auto and boat registration, parks entry.
Our elected goonies are already conjuring up new ways to steal from those of us who work for or scheme/scam others for a living.
By Leroy in Leroy
Apr 16, 2009 5:47 PM | Link to this
You can think for your self by watching CNN? Not many can do that. Edwards is for antoher tax, a miles friven tax. Surely yoou are not for that? Or are you?
By Geri Rodriguez
Apr 16, 2009 2:44 PM | Link to this
You missed your chance to get rid of Cornyn - I am guessing you didn't vote for the Democratic Senatorial nominee on Nov. 4th.
Thanks for the advice, I will continue to watch CNN and C-span, and think for myself.
By leroy
Apr 16, 2009 1:42 PM | Link to this
Geri "Clueless" Rodriquez
Just want to know did you go? How do you know it was a anti Obama Rally? I was there and it was not that. It was about Edwards and Coryn and Hutchinson not hearing us. They all must go. The days of give me my check and then some is bankrupting us. I was upset with Bush too. You need to watch some other channel beside CNN
By Buck
Apr 16, 2009 1:36 PM | Link to this
Yes, there were some anti-Obama protesters. No, that was not the theme of the events. Did you attend one? The people I talked to, as well as most of the signs I saw in person and on television, were protesting out of control government spending in the face of massive debt and the ridiculous federal tax system. This has been brewing for a long time, but I believe the massive coverage of all things economic over the past few months led to the protests now. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of what goes on in Washington. Thanks to this coverage they appear to be waking up. These protests have been happening since February at least. They gathered steam and came to a head on April 15. I admit that I'm no fan of President Obama, but I wasn't protesting him. I do find it ironic, however, that a liberal would have a problem with protesting the President after the hateful performances of the last eight years.
By Geri Rodriguez
Apr 16, 2009 1:14 PM | Link to this
The reason that no one was protesting last April is because this isn't at all about taxes or spending. These are anti Obama rallies plain and simple. This is America, and everyone is entitled to their say, but call it what it is. There were no protests last year because the "Tea Baggers" voted for Bush and company, and IOKIYAR ("it's okay if you are Republican") The only problem is the tea party was last November and Republicans were thrown out. Now it's the Democrats turn to try and clean up the mess.
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