There has been a lot of talk about the Tea Party movement lately, an astroturf (phony grassroots) movement created by right wing PR firms, to promote policies favorable to corporations and the wealthy, at our expense.
Interestingly the original Boston Tea Party was in response to tax cuts enacted by Parliament during the depression of the 1760s, so Britain could sell tea more cheaply in the colonies. This, of course, raised taxes in the colonies. Now we are in another depression, also caused by tax cuts, starting when Reagan reduced taxes on the wealthy from 70 percent to around 30 percent, while effectively doubling the tax rates on incomes below $40,000 by increasing Social Security taxes, which he then plundered.
The Tea Party movement”s first task was to protect the highly profitable health insurance industry, by sabotaging the pathetic efforts of Democrats to Band-Aid that crisis. It also works to prevent economic solutions such as stimulus spending, to make up for the contraction (or overseas exodus) of business spending.
The Tea Party”s formula is simple deception. It is not a coincidence that during periods of high taxation on corporations and the wealthy, we have prosperity. Nor is it coincidental that since the simple formula was enacted, the economy has descended into our current mess, while jobs are destroyed, wages stagnate and the wealthy triple their share of the pie we create.
Just in this state, we are enduring endless cuts, causing much suffering by students, laid-off workers and poor people, so that the wealthy don”t have to have their taxes raised a little.
While many Tea Partiers are sincere, they should realize that they are being manipulated into opposing their own best interests. We need to increase regulations on corporate excesses and reinstate high tax rates on the wealthy to bring back the middle class, and the prosperity of the 1950s and ”60s.
Glenn Goodman
Lower Lake
