Many average Americans are perplexed by the political discontent they see and hear among their neighbors and are asking questions like: Why is there a Tea Party movement? Why do talk radio hosts seem so angry? Why do so many Americans, at least the slim majority which pays income taxes, hold our government in such disdain?
Perhaps the following will help us understand:
Reports reveal that Congress spent over a billion dollars of your money between June 2009 and March of 2010 on things like bottled water and donuts.
Charlie Rangel, former chairman of the House Ways and Means committee which writes the laws that determine what taxes you and I will pay, how much we will pay, and what the penalties will be if we don't pay is facing charges that he has failed to pay his own taxes(Thanks to Jason for this link).
Senator John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes, dodged a six-figure Massachussetts state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring it in Rhode Island.
And, of course, Timothy Geithner, the man who currently oversees the nation's budget and tax policy, had found a way to avoid meeting his own tax obligation until he was chosen by Mr. Obama to serve as Treasury Secretary. Only then did it come to light that he'd been essentially cheating the American public by not paying his taxes.
People are understandably angry because while the President is imposing polices that guarantee that you and I will have to pay more of our meager incomes in taxes to the government, much of which will go to buy our elected elites bottled water and other amenities, the people who comprise those elites and who implement those policies are themselves looking for ways to avoid having to pay those taxes. They treat themselves as an aristocracy, a privileged class to be borne along on the backs of middle class Americans.
It's one big reason why this Congress has an 11% approval rating. It's also the main reason, perhaps, why there's a Tea Party and why there are ads like this:
Thanks to Powerline for the video.
RLC