Tea Party: Will you be drinking or dunking?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/15/art.teaparty1.gi.jpg caption="Activists nationwide are holding gatherings on Tax Day, April 15."]WASHINGTON (CNN) – Finger sandwiches won't be served, but there will be a lot of frustration brewing about the current tax system at "Tea Parties" being held Wednesday across the nation.
Activists are holding these events on tax day to voice their opposition to the current tax system and the federal government's spending decisions, such as bailing out the banks and the auto industry.
So, what do you think? Have President Obama and Congress taken the right steps to help the ailing economy? Have Republicans been smart to oppose his fiscal policies? Does the tax code need an overhaul?
Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.
Here are some CNN stories about the nationwide "Tax Day Tea Party":
Activists gear up for national 'Tax Day Tea Party'
GOP uses tax day to raise money
GOP encourages supporters to send virtual tea bags to top Dems
Listen: CNN Radio analyzes the politics of Tax Day
I don't mind these so called "tea parties". Everyone has a right to protest. What puzzles me is why these people suddenly became so interested in our governments appetite for debt accumulation "after" the election of President Obama. Government spending has been out of control since George Bush became president. The Republican controlled congress and senate passed every spending bill he sent to them. AIG, Citicorp, and the other financial institutions have been peddling unregulated credit default swaps and other phony instruments for years. Why the sudden out rage? And why do some of the protesters carry signs comparing Obama to Hitler, Mao, and Marx? What does that have to do with an unfair tax system? Maybe I'm being hyper sensitive, if so I apologize, but there seems to be so much contempt for one man mixed in with this protest that it causes me question the intellectual honesty of its sponsors.
Why don't we ask the unemployed what they think about people skipping out on work to attend these tea parties.
All we need to do is look at recent history to see that tax breaks do not help the economy, it will help the rich though. I was very happy to see that the middle class is being considered in the current administration, as we have not been for years. I have always been willing to pay my taxes, we do get benefits in return, but lately those benefits have been less and less. Locally we have republicans running my county and the "no taxes" and "tax cut" chant has turned my once beautiful county and parks system into a wasteland. All of our assets that we have been paying taxes for all these years are being given away to cronies in the name of privatization. I am for responsibility. We need to maintain and improve our communities. People have forgotten we get what we pay for.
I want to know why these " tea party" groups didn't speak up for the past 8 years, why did it take so long, could it be that the tried and true Big Business people were happy with the Bush years, and now that they are threatened they are using their talking heads at Fox news and GOP radio to fire up the little guy. I wish that everyone that is protesting today would read the proposed GOP budget, it's more of the same. Be careful, the tea may be tainted.
This is really laughable. A bunch of angry republicans that will do anything to discredit the new administration. I find it amusing that they chose the same way to protest as was done a couple hundred years ago. Wow have they advanced or what. They continue to be a joke.
the sideshow continues
Almost none of the Tea Party folks are "rich people" (by the way the top 10% pay 72% of the taxes now), they are lower and middle class people who DO pay taxes – and some cannot afford to pay their taxes.
Wait until end of next year when ALL taxes have to be raised to he heavens if you think it is bad now. Obama is kooky and he knows it – he has an AGenda.....as he said "I'm a WORLD citizen".
Jane J
Wi
I understand the outrage over the bailouts, but I do not understand these people talking about Socialism. Correcting the tax code so that it is FAIR and does not favor the wealthiest Americans is NOT Socialism. And By the way, taxation without representation is what we had under BUSH. Just sounds like more misinformed conservatives who don't know what they're talking about.
I'll be going to work for the day – while these lazy bums stupidly protest Bush's tax policies and insult the memory of what our founding fathers fought against.
Their protest would have been better served by showing their communities that they care – helping to repair/clean/organize & supply their local schools, cleaning up public parks, etc – all of those things that require tax dollars to get done.
Your tax dollars support our troops. Do republicans not want to support our troops anymore?
If you guys want to pay higher taxes for even more and more government control of your life – go right ahead. Send Obama and Pelosi all you have. I'm sure they'd take it.
However, like the Founding Fathers, I'd prefer to keep as much as possible of what I've earned.
WOW! Watching this magnificant event unfold right before my eyes on CNN.com is simply overwhelming at the number of people that have shown up to rebel against taxing without representation!
Transalation? My 40th high school reunion had more people and fewer walkers!
This is about the Republican party trying to steal the thunder from the Libertarian party and use it against the President, because the Republicans have absolutely no new ideas of their own to repair the economy besides more tax cuts.
This is not grassroots anything. This is mere astroturf.
Also, it is amusing to see the child in the photo above with the sign 'Too Young to Work.' Sadly, not too young to have his parents indoctrinate their politics into his ripe sponge of a mind.
Unbelievable at all of the lunacy associated with the right wing and their "fox" analysts. Does anyone realize the taxes they are protesting are BUSH TAX CUTS? Clear heads.
To all those who complain about all the money the government is spending...
It's ultimately our fault for being so complacent and not caring what business was doing, so long as we got our cheap goods and were making money. It's also ultimately our fault for not keeping an eye on our government and its lack of oversight and changing laws that did nothing more than allow business to make risky moves in the name of profit. It's ultimately our fault for buying gas guzzlers again when gas prices went down... thus telling the car industry to keep making SUV's and such. It's ultimately our fault for buying into all those risky loans.
I can go on but we screwed up and now we are paying for it. And I do mean 'we'.
Conservatives stop with your selective memory!! Blame Bush for taxes. Darn Obama just got in there trying to fix the mess!! Whatever Obama do will be an approvement from Bush mess!!
where were these morons when Bush signed the first stimulus bill???
I support fewer taxes, smaller governent and less federal spending. But this "tea party" thing is just a bit silly, and the blatant hawking by Fox News and other major media outlets while pretending it's a "grassroots" movement does nothing for the credibility of the message.
These are just a bunch of uneducated people spurned on my the GOP and FOX NEWS! That truely have no idea what they are talking about. Sad really. We're neck deep in ignorance in this country!
The circus has come to town.
Its laughable that the GOP is trying to saddle up to this tea party movement. They never overestimate the intelligence or collective memory of the American people. They really think middle class Americans have forgot or don't understand that George Bush and the GOP controlled all three branches of government for the last 8 years!!
It's about time we stand up as Americans who love this country and try to get Congress and the President to wake up. You can't keep spending money like there is no tomorrow. Sooner or later (which they will long be dead) their descendents will have to pay all this new debt off.
The Tea Party is not paid for by any organization or group. They are just true Americans who are fed up with the trillions of dollars being rung up for non-essentials. Yet, I understand that ACORN will be there protesting. They have money now from their gift from Congress, so they couldn't do anything but be opposed.
It will be interesting to here tonight how the liberal media will handle this event.
I think it's time someone exposed these bogus "tea parties" for what they really are: a bunch of angry, pissed-off white people getting together and protesting the fact that we have a black President.
Where were all of these people when George W. Bush was wasting hundreds and hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars?
Some of the posts supporting these "tea" parties reveal the true nature of the protests. These people aren't patriotic at all; they don't care about guaranteeing personal freedoms or making sure that everyone has the opportunity to succeed. All they care about is their own wallets. It is this self-serving attitude that got our country into this mess in the first place. We need to recognize that there is no point to having a united states if everyone is only in it for themselves.
The Tea Parties did not take place for the past 8 years because BUSH CUt taxes for everyone...the bottom that paid 15% were cut to 10%....people never research the facts. Today the top 10% pay for 72% of the taxes.
Tom Saskentin
Arizona