Tea Party Madness

John Sherffius                                                                             

Tribune Media Serivces

"A good chunk of the Republican caucus is either stupid, crazy, ignorant, or craven cowards afraid of the Tea Party people." Bruce Bartlett, former Reagan Policy Advisor

Yes, even former Reagan officials are denouncing House Republicans for their intransigence in addressing raising the debt ceiling to stave off economic calamity that will once again hit America's middle class and poor the hardest. The Tea Party radical ideologues in the House would rather see our country humiliated by losing its triple A credit rating, see markets crash (already down a whopping 4%) and allow a deep global depression rather than compromise one iota. They are an embarrassment and disgrace. Are some voters finally having voters' remorse? Maybe they will if they do not get their Social Security check in August.

Any serious, rational attempt to deal with our nation's deficit will have to include increased revenue- there is almost unanimous agreement on that- except for the Teapublicans. They are more concerned with protecting the 400 richest families in our country that make on average $270 million a year and pay at a tax rate similar to the poor- about 18%  (armed with the best tax lawyers money can buy- they often pay far less than that). They say we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem- but they are lying. Tax revenue is the lowest it has been since the 1950's! We are still in a painful recession and to not ask the very rich to pay their fair share, as we are all being asked to sacrifice so much, is an abomination. A recent Washington Post poll showed that the vast majority (72%) of Americans, Democrat and Republican think that taxes should be raised on all making $250,000 and more a year. Yet, that provision is missing from any of the proposals on the table.

If you are feeling as frustrated as I am, please join us Monday night at the Rosendale Community Center at 7PM to work on building the movement to Reclaim the American Dream and letting Washington know

"Enough is enough. Make the rich pay their share. Protect the social safety net that has made American strong  for decades. End the wars, create jobs, invest in infrastructure and a new clean energy economy!"

We have to come together to be effective in protecting our rights, because there is an extremely well-funded, organized corporate-led movment to eviscerate them.  Write to me at clearstreammedia@gmail.com for more information about the MoveOn-led peoples' movment to fight back.