November 2nd Can’t Arrive Soon Enough

You really have to wonder about the people in office right now.  Last week, tea party protests were held all over the USA.  Now the Democrats want tea party activists to think they’re trying to cut taxes, make government smaller, and reign in the deficit.

First, President Obama spoke at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser on tax day, April 15th and said that tea party activists should “be saying thank you” for the tax cuts enacted by his administration.

Then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared Sunday, April 18th on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”  He was asked about the tea party protests and responded by saying “We’ve just been through eight years where many people said deficits don’t matter. We can pass huge tax cuts, pass huge new programs without paying for them. That debate has changed fundamentally.”  “You don’t hear people say anymore deficits don’t matter. You don’t hear people saying we can pass enormous expansions in government without paying for it. That’s an important change.”

Obviously these statements are in direct contradiction to everything the Democrats have done since taking control of the White House and Congress.  Taxes are going up, at least for those of us who pay them.  And we’re not just talking about the federal income tax.  Politicians keep looking for new and creative ways to take our money.  Health care reform?  Tax.  Cap & trade?  Tax.  Financial reform?  Tax.

What about controlling the size of government?  Well, the IRS plans to hire 16,000 additional agents just to make sure we’ve all got health care.  In addition, the Washington Times reports that federal government payroll will grow to 2.15 million employees this year.  That number includes 80,000 census workers, but doesn’t include approximately 600,000 postal employees or the millions of government contractors.  Government today is by far the nation’s single biggest employer and the average government employee makes $79,197 compared to the $50,028 made by the average private sector employee.

So what about the deficit?Just one look at US National Debt Clock is enough to make most people’s head spin.  Members of Congress have voted to extend unemployment benefits twice in the last two months, with the most recent extension contributing an additional $18 billion to the deficit.  Some Republicans, including Senator Jim Bunning (KY), attempted to block the measures until Congress figured out how to pay for it. Rep. Sander Levin, a Democrat from Michigan said “They seem to have discovered fiscal responsibility when it comes time to extend unemployment benefits but not when it came to paying for tax cuts for the rich and the Iraq war.”

It’s enough to make you wonder if the politicians really think people are that stupid.  A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 52% of U.S. voters believe the average member of the Tea Party movement has a better understanding of the issues facing America today than the average member of Congress.  Hopefully we’ll remind our current Congress not to insult our intelligence by voting them out of office this November.  Then in 2012 we’ll have an opportunity to say “thank you” to Barack Obama…as in “thank you for your service…now get out!”