"Tea Partiers don't get it"

ajc blogger: "Tea baggers are a small group of 6th grade educated morons. Anyone above a 6th grade education would know better."

First, you use offensive language, then you insult a lot of peoples' education.

I attended the April Tea Party at the Capitol with several members of my family (some of whom also attended the Tea Party in D.C. later in the year) and between the 5 adults we held a PhD, several master's degrees (plus a not-quite finished MBA), five bachelor's degrees in various disciplines. And yet, there we were speaking out.

It is oversimplifying the issue to say we are against taxes and government. When I say "we" here I cannot speak for all Tea Party attendees, but only those I know and spoke with.

The case is more that we are opposed to increased Federalism, especially so much of the federal government's actions that appear to be outside the limited powers provided for in the Constitution. And at the time, we were specifically opposed to and quite upset about TARP and the unread, pork-laden stimulus bill that many of us felt was simply not going to work. We didn't want the federal government to bail out the GM or AIG, let alone Fannie and Freddie. We believed that it was madness to socialize risk and privatize profit (which is what the bailouts did and will do next time). We believed that the housing meltdown was exacerbated if not precipitated largely by the federal government's policies and the fact that the federal government held more than $5T in mortgage loans through the auspices of Fannie and Freddie (even though there's was never a promise that the government would backstop Fannie and Freddie--nudge-nudge wink-wink, right?) We believed that all of these problems were not only foreseeable, but had been clearly foreseen and corrective actions actively fought by elements in Congress on both sides of the aisle.

We understand that government is necessary, and it has to be funded. But we also believe that, especially at the federal level, the Constitution provides a very specific set of powers and responsibilities. We are seeking a return to that limited government--we believe that the federal government ought not be everyone's mommy. We believe that the current situation (huge deficit spending) is unsustainable and it is better to deal with the problem now rather than face total economic collapse. We see a future when the Treasury will be forced to print money, when devaluing the dollar will be the only way to pay our debts. That will not be pretty. One way to stave that off is to start cutting the expenditures of the federal government. As it is much of the federal government actions are simply unfunded mandates to the States. We believe that these actions should be made at the State level anyway, and taking the federal government out of the loop is a good thing.

Ironically, in light of this article, we believe that transportation is at least partly within the enumerated domain of the federal government, I have no problem with Interstate highways as "post roads"; more so that I am familiar with the military aspects of the system as constructed. The notion that these post/military highways serve civilian needs (also known as "dual use") is just a bonus. And the gasoline tax is perhaps the single fairest and least complicated way to offset the maintenance requirements caused by civilian use of the system: the more you drive, the more you pay (and heavier and less efficient vehicles pay more).

On the other hand, the income tax system has been used as a mechanism for social engineering and class warfare. We have a system in which more than 40% (and every year we get closer to the 50% tipping point) not only pay no income taxes, but where a growing number have negative tax liability (aka tax welfare). When 141 thousand people pay more than 20% of all federal income taxes, when the top 5% pay more than 71% and then the bottom 75% pay barely more than 13% of collected income taxes, this system cannot be considered fair. Indeed the imbalance means that every day more and more voters will be freeloaders, paying nothing into the system yet sucking more and more out and voting themselves more and more largess. How quickly would the system fail if the top 5% simply stopped doing what they're doing?

So, we believe that government is a necessary evil, but that it must be limited to what is prudent, necessary, and affordable. We know that government must be funded to do those things and that taxes, equitably assessed, are necessary. What we disagree on is simply what we believe is the line for prudent, necessary, and affordable.