Tax day rallies

Here in America, we marked this tax day with rallies across the country.

Why are the protesting? They are protesting against rampant government spending without actual "results", government power grabs at what little power the people have, the "tax and spend" philosophy that democrats are accused of having, among many other things but, the core reason is the way that government has been mishandling our money for generations. Even people promoting the FairTax.

So how did we protest? Not just with signs, and the typical protesting stuff. We dumped tea, just like we did at the Boston Tea party. Over the taxation without representation which this protest is along the lines of "Taxation without proper representation"

For me, I find this nothing less than inspiring. What are your thoughts?

Uhh, there was rallies? I know the boston tea party happened. But, any chance you could enlighten the newcomers?

A.k.a. "Tea parties". Just protests against the government for what they feel as wrong doing on behalf of the government. People are fed up with the government stealing 35% or more of a working mans paycheck 68% if you are "rich". The speed at which money is being spent. The complex and generally unfair tax code. The "stimulus", bail outs,etc. The list goes on

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8001242.stm

this is actually really relevant for me because i live in dc, and dc residents dont have congressional voting rights, even though we pay something like the second highest taxes in the nation, so i know firsthand that taxation without representation is unjust. its great that these people are publicly voicing their disquiet, but i just dont know how much that will really help. people protest constantly, and they dont always have favorable results. i dont mean to be bitter and mean towards the government, but until a couple middle class citizens gains major political positions, i cant imagine anything changing. but i am POSITIVE that getting to class was HELL this morning.

I wonder where all these rallies were during the last 8 years.

Guantanamo Bay.

Sucking George Bush's dick.

I guess I fail to see why these protests are particularly inspiring. It's been a while since we have seen much grassroots activism from conservatives, but these protests are no more inspiring to me than the protests that liberals engaged in when Bush was sworn in for his second term. Still, like the liberals in 2004, most of the people out there are simply republicans protesting for the party line, the same type of stuff that they talked about at the RNC convention. Hell, Alan Keyes was there.

Still, the depressing truth is that if McCain had won the election, he would be spending irresponsibly on more expensive military action, bailouts, and tax cuts for the rich and this protest wouldn't be happening. Instead, we'd have some liberals out protesting against war or something.

Ok, so these people want lower taxes, a simplified logical tax code, etc. But what are they willing to give up? Not their social security. Not the local projects brought in by their own senators(just those brought in by other peoples' senators).

Ultimately, the people of the US have themselves to blame, not evil politicians, corrupt corporations, or whatever other demons we have conjured up. We have collectively decided that we want entitlement programs, money for special interests, etc, all while paying minimal taxes. So whenever anyone tries to touch any of the spending, we vote them out of office. Tax hikes are about equally popular(or in this case the "rolling back" or supposedly temporary tax cuts on the wealthy).

Hell, I'm liberal on most issues and even I think social security needs to die.

I fail to see how this protest is related to "taxation without representation"(except for residents of DC perhaps). These people are free to vote in fiscally responsible small government politicians. They don't.

It wasn't a literal "taxation without representation" but, more of a "taxation without proper representation". I see this as inspiring because it shows me that people care enough about conservative economics to actually protest. Sure, there are people out amongst the party lines but, this adds more fuel to the FairTax movement. Despite what people may think, Americans want smaller government, they want less interference in their daily lives, removal of entitlement programs. Politicians only tell us what we want to hear to vote. They will tell us that "everybody" wants item X even though item X is the opposite of what people want.

Anyways, true fiscal conservative people would want to change the tax code so people can understand our tax code unlike our current tax chief or whatever the guys position is. Another is to remove income tax and replace it with a consumption tax (i.e. FairTax) where people can invest their money more and in the long run spend more. The politicians won't be able to use income tax as a vote machine. Also a true conservative would be with us and want S.S. to come down, government spending to be reigned in instead of just the blank check writing they have been doing. Everybody should have noticed now that the recent years the government (namely congress) has just thrown money at the problem instead of fixing it. The government is borrowing money every year to pay for its spending. Even a child would know that spending more than you earn is never a good thing.

Edit: I recently found out that several "Liberal" media outlets claim that everybody who attended a rally was either insane or an extremist. Yet, for extremist there was no violence. Try to have no violence at a G20 summit or a code pink rally, ain't gonna happen.

Until, of course, the economy busts, a hurricane hits a major city, or old people want their healthcare subsidized.

I'm hoping for a grassroots change in the mentality of Americans. To go back to the mentality our parents and grandparents had. To work hard and persevere in times of hardship instead of running to the government begging our lords and masters to help us.

Entitlement programs are incredibly popular. This is why the vast majority of politicians make no attempt to kill the ones we currently have. People say they want smaller government, but whenever you ask them which government services they are willing to give up, they don't want to give any of them up. People are abstractly for smaller government, less taxes, fewer entitlements, etc, but when confronted with the details, they get unhappy and vote against cutbacks.

Maybe it's because too many people don't take the time to understand how this stuff works, or maybe people don't care because they don't see a direct effect of irresponsible government spending on themselves, but voters are happy to vote in the politicians who promise lots of new spending and tax cuts(look at what happened to Mondale).



I still don't see how it has anything to do with this. The protesters get to vote; they are represented. It just happens that the people who are seriously willing to give up entitlement benefits in exchange for lower taxes and a balanced budget are not the majority.



Past generations also had more trust in the government. It's a double edged sword. Trusting the government can lead to scandals, but it also allows governmental leaders to have a chance to do something that might be necessary but unpopular(like ending social security).

Question: Do you like Ron Paul?

Is this directed at me? Personally, I admire Ron Paul's candor, knowledge, and dedication to individual liberty, but many of his national policy ideas are astoundingly terrible. For one, he wants to eliminate the Federal Reserve Board and many of the other government agencies. I think many people can agree that there is some unnecessary bureaucracy, but many of the agencies he wishes to eliminate perform important tasks. Essentially, I think he is advocating government that would have worked in the 19th century but that would make a poor choice in today's world of globalization. He has, despite supposedly being for free trade, talked a lot about tariffs. He is also quite isolationist in his foreign policy approach, which simply is not viable in today's world. He supports fractional-reserve banking, which I don't believe is a tenable policy in today's economy.

No, actually I made that post before you posted, but it turned into an image of some person trying to save his computer from a fire.

If it was directed at me, I'm in the same boat as whitelion. Ron Paul is a good man with some slight "problems" he's not really wrong but, the devils of his plans are in the details. Though, I support isolationism to a degree. It seems no matter what we do/don't do or why we do it, America is automatically evil. This is why I support the isolationism. Don't send aid or anything military to anybody, anywhere. Let the rest of the world protect their respective candy asses. We shouldn't send our troops to fight and die for some person who will only demonize them.

Also, it's a little off-topic, but it needs to be said - it's funny that when the tsunamis happened, America was quick to help out the foreign countries, but when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the city and its inhabitants didn't get even one-tenth of the amount of aid that was given to the tsunami victims. The country could definitely spend some more time and effort watching over its own people, before we try to help others.

Anyways, about the tax rallies, it's good to see people protesting, it shows that some people still care, but it seems like the whole tax mess can be chalked up to people wanting their cake and eating it, too. It's like that episode of The Simpsons where the teachers went on strike, and Skinner and Krabapple (her real name's too hard to spell) argued about the issue. Krabapple said that the teachers deserved more money, and the audience agreed; Skinner said that they'd have to raise taxes, and the audience booed.

I think some people genuinely want less government influence, while a lot of other people simply want to have more money in their paychecks, without caring about what taxes pay for. While I do hate paying taxes, I understand that the money is going somewhere, and while I don't think the money is being appropriately spent right now, I believe that it could be properly spent. If I wanted decent public schools in my area, I'd accept that my taxes would have to be higher than in a city with shitty public schools. That said, I wouldn't want my taxes to be higher just so the city could have a kick-ass football stadium, but if that happened, I'd move someplace where they didn't expect me to pay for a worthless fucking stadium.

For me, I equate taxes that aren't voluntary to theft. I mean, what is the basic definition of theft?

Taking something from somebody by fraud or force without their permission.

A system that takes money from people before they ever even get it is basically theft. You can dress it up or rationalize it however you like but, it's still theft. Don't get me wrong, taxes run the government which is a necessary evil but, a government shouldn't be funded through theft. So a system where only the more die hard can "avoid" paying taxes is the best idea for changing our current system. Everybody has heard me promote the FairTax before and it is the most progressive tax floating out there amongst the people. Taxing people based on what they spend instead of what they earn. In a nutshell, those who don't pay income taxes (Drug dealers, illegal immigrants,etc) will pay into the system.

Georgia has the seventh largest illegal immigrant population. The most recent record I could find is from 2000 but, stay with me on this.

228,000 illegal immigrants

Money they pay into the current system. $0 as almost all Illegal immigrants are paid under the table. Now, they have to buy something, somewhere at sometime in a store. Which means? That's right, they pay sales tax. Lets say all these immigrants spend a dollar at the FairTax amount for sales tax (23%) which would turn out roughly $52,000. Now, think about drug dealers, prostitutes and various other "jobs" that don't pay income tax. These people never pay a cent in income tax but, they have to buy things like food, cars, clothing,etc.

Anyways, by removing income tax you give people more money to invest. More money in savings, I.R.A.'s, 401k's and the like. I firmly believe that an individual can plan their own retirement better than the government can for them (Social Security).

Plus, you don't have to file taxes under the FairTax which makes the dreaded April 15th just another spring day.

I could go on but, then I won't shut up about it.