Tea Party Truth

“For too long, we’ve seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that actually increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams.” – President Obama, speaking today

People came together at “Tea Parties” across the state today, complaining that they pay too much in taxes. They must not have checked their paychecks recently.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, included the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. It’s the fastest and broadest tax cut in American history (yet, amazingly, no Tennessee Republican voted for it).

The tax credit is available to all workers (except those claimed as another taxpayer’s dependent) earning up to $95,000 and married couples earning up to $190,000. If your taxes are withheld from your paycheck, you should have seen your take-home pay increase in the last few weeks.

On a related note, we heard some disturbing news from East Tennessee today. Cocke County High School in Newport, TN, and Cosby High School in Cosby, TN, both encouraged their students to attend the Cocke County Tea Party today, making multiple announcements over the PA. Now, if a parent wants to take their son or daughter out of class to attend a political rally, that’s perfectly fine. But surely it’s inappropriate for a school administrator to encourage students to ditch school to attend a plainly partisan political event.

Link: OpenPen.org

UPDATE: Apparently, the TNGOP believes we missed the point of the protesters yesterday: “They are appalled by the borrow-and-spend mentality of the current administration.”

That’s a perfectly valid position. But I don’t recall Phil Valentine, Marsha Blackburn, or any of the other Tea Partiers taking to the streets when a president started a $3 trillion elective war after passing a $1.35 trillion tax cut for the rich.

Also, Rutherford County Democratic Party chair Jonathon Fagan made a very similar point yesterday to the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro.