tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post905523301545581268..comments2023-11-05T03:20:46.695-05:00Comments on The Ostroy Report: Tea Parties: GOP Once Again Manipulating the Average Joe The Ostroy Reporthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04955421147082736335noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-59760305974152510882009-05-20T14:51:34.374-04:002009-05-20T14:51:34.374-04:00I am not sure why this is so hard to understand. ...I am not sure why this is so hard to understand. I make around $ 100,000 per year. I pay around $35,000 per year in federal, state, ss, sales tax, special taxes, fees, etc.<br /><br />Got that? $35,000. I am one of the 95% getting a tax benefit under Obama which will amount to around $800 leaving me with a tax burden of over $34,000. I'm supposed to be happy about that? <br /><br />Between all my bills and life's unexpected expenses I barely have anything left to work with to live. Because I worked hard and made something of myself I should be able to travel, eat at restaurants, buy conveniences and entertainment items, etc. without having to put it on a credit card but I can't.<br /><br />I should be able to enjoy the fruit of my hard work. Instead I have this huge tax burden. Because I feel this way, you want to label me some kindof fanatic? Andy, you are more financially blessed than I am so I guess it comes easy to part with so much cash. For me it really affects my quality of life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-80337058729720526812009-04-18T21:45:00.000-04:002009-04-18T21:45:00.000-04:00I have been trying to figure out the tea bagging t...I have been trying to figure out the tea bagging thing. The people I saw interviewed were obviously genuinely pissed off and were expressing real anger and discontent...<br /><br />Then it hit me while I was sitting on the back porch of a local public golf course. I overheard a conversation that started out all wrong--a blowhard was lamenting the amount of taxes we pay and said that he was very afraid that we would end up like Europe. Like Sweden, like Holland. Oh my!<br /><br />And then one of his foursome very quietly said, "You know it's really different over there...". And proceeded to point out that his counterpart in Amsterdam is paid substantially less, but that, "when he retires he get 100% of his salary from the highest year of his earnings...If I could get that I'd jump on it in a heartbeat even with a higher tax rate..." <br /><br />This stopped the blowhard in his tracks and I suddenly realized what the tea bagger's are angry about.<br /><br />It is not that our tax rate is too high--it is that we get very little for it.<br /><br />In the social democracies of Europe (and that has to include the UK in some regards) each citizen does pay a substantially higher percentage of income in taxes. But in my experience, while the more capitalist among them complain about the rate, they get concrete, real benefits from what they pay: health care, a national retirement system, state mandated minimum annual vacation etc. <br /><br />And this is why these tea baggers are protesting. They don't know how and who, but they do realize that they're getting robbed.<br /><br />They pay taxes, but they don't see the benefits coming back to them. Fifty percent of their tax dollars are wasted on maintaining the corporate American empire--which our government calls defense spending. <br /><br />Most entitlements are not available to them because they are either too young or they are too wealthy according to their federal and state governments. <br /><br />So, when a job is lost or a an illness comes, there aren't any corresponding benefits. No health care, no unemployment benefits commensurate with their former income, no career re-education, no national retirement--no nothing really. <br /><br />That's why they're pissed about any level of taxation. While these folks are not the sharpest tools in the shed--their concerns should not be shrugged off. They are genuine and spring from the fundamental inequities in our tax system and from what our money is being spent on.<br /><br />Think about it. Aren't you pissed off too? Most of us just received a modest tax cut--but at least 50% of our tax dollars are being spent on maintaining our military industrial complex here and abroad. The remainder is going to social programs that most of us are not eligible for...The two party system means that only rarely do our votes count and only rarely do we get to vote FOR someone. <br /><br />Given all that can you not understand the tea bagger's discontent? Liberal's must learn how to articulate why these folks are angry and speak to it. The tea bagger's are not necessarily knee jerk conservatives. They are discontented citizens that need to be recruited. <br /><br />Liberals will push for programs that will help these folks. The conservatives will only use their fury and then do nothing for them. We are on their side they just don't know it yet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-64316425343556644752009-04-17T10:36:00.000-04:002009-04-17T10:36:00.000-04:00The tea party protests were against TAXES -- ALL T...The tea party protests were against TAXES -- ALL TAXES<br /><br />I pay 7 pecent in my state for everything I buy. Since I spend all I earn I pay seven percent of my income to the state<br /><br />My state has raised state income taxes, too.<br /><br />My city has local taxes.<br /><br />My AT&T phone bill has about ten dollars in different taxes every month. I even pay a dollar for 911 service.<br /><br />My property tax has gone up a lot. THERE IS NO SECURITY ANYWHERE. IF I RENT THE LANDLORD CAN RAISE MY RENT AND WHEN I LIVE IN MY HOME I'M AT THE MERCY OF PROPERTY TAXES BEING RAISED ANYTIME TO ANY AMOUNT.<br /><br />The rich weren't protesting because if they don't like city/state/fed taxes they can move to another state like Donald Trump is going to do. The corporations and the rich can move to another country.<br /><br />EVERY transaction I have is connected to a tax from some "power" over me.<br /><br />This was not a protest against Obama but agaist the grip others have over the average American.<br /><br />We are at the mercy of any power that needs money.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-48199028646611813782009-04-17T10:00:00.000-04:002009-04-17T10:00:00.000-04:002:50
Pass all you want. You just don't get it any...2:50<br /><br />Pass all you want. You just don't get it anyway.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-59491735975746331962009-04-17T09:59:00.000-04:002009-04-17T09:59:00.000-04:00Okay you folks who think the bailouts are bad, wou...Okay you folks who think the bailouts are bad, would you rather our country be destroyed?<br /><br />I'm serious. Folks against it, just do not have the critical thinking skills needed to even comprehend our problems.<br /><br />No one is drinking any Kool aid when it come to Obama. He is not perfect. But he is 1000 times better than Bush and the Republicans anyday.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-83029609918775465572009-04-16T17:31:00.000-04:002009-04-16T17:31:00.000-04:00Thank you for addressing the angry and manipulated...Thank you for addressing the angry and manipulated voter, who's been stuffed full of terrible information, but doesn't care. I have a very old friend who should be smarter than Fox News and conspiracy theories, but isn't. After getting too many loony emails, I finally told him that life is bigger than who is right and who is wrong, and that I won't discuss politics with him. I'd rather just be his friend. It's wearying, all this anger.Writer to the Starshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07710318526502619165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-77196169532900065252009-04-16T17:14:00.000-04:002009-04-16T17:14:00.000-04:00Capitalism is inherently unsustainable. So the go...Capitalism is inherently unsustainable. So the government's actions aren't "working" anymore than the 90s "boom" was "working" for wage slaves like me and most other Americans. Sort of like how the media and politicians are now telling us all to live on a budget and be frugal. It may be news to them, but most of us have been living on a budget all along, including under Democratic administrations.<br /><br />And maybe it's because I'm in Texas, but it seemed to me that the "tea party" here drew more of the Ron Paul crowd than the Rush Limbaugh crowd; although, having seen some of the signs these idiots were waving around America, it could also have been mistaken for a white power rally.Stellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02636597142623332718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-3334416986589985592009-04-16T14:50:00.000-04:002009-04-16T14:50:00.000-04:00Athough i agree with most of what you say Andy i a...Athough i agree with most of what you say Andy i am not drinking the Obama Kool Aid.<br />Barack is very charasmatic and i want to believe him but i'll pass.<br /><br />This banker bailout is ridiculous.<br /><br />A complete fraud on the American people.<br /><br />More parasitic theft on the taxpayer at the hands of the elite.<br /><br />The Republicans are vile and have no shame. They take hypocrisy to levels unimaginable. They harm America at every chance.<br /><br />The Democrats and Republicans are controlled by the same people at the top and have done a great job sodomizing the people for decades.<br /><br />This game is a ruse and it's time for it to stop.<br /><br />Obama's foreign policy PR campaign last month was nice and America's image more then needs it.<br /><br />We are officially The United Snakes of Torture and Obama refuses to address Bush War crimes. Why ? Because his master's won't allow him. Obama works for his master's and not the America people.<br /><br /><br /><br />Once you look at the meat and potatoes it's a continuation of Bush Foreign Policy and merely more puppeteering by the CFR and Brzezinski. <br /><br /><br />Both Obama and THE GOP are manipulating the Average Joe.<br />Enough already.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11636447.post-13898864121132098812009-04-16T13:33:00.000-04:002009-04-16T13:33:00.000-04:00I saw tea-partier say he was a "small businessman"...I saw tea-partier say he was a "small businessman" who lost his house two years ago on one of the interviews...<br /><br />The reason the tea parties aren't Roverian, is that they do not have a coherent message.<br /><br />The little guy knows "tea parties" in our culture are about taxes, period. The linkage to bailouts and foreclosures isn't the same.<br /><br />And a week after the G-20 protests, it's not a good association.<br /><br />Finally, Americans are into killing Somalians now( not Nescafe.) And Obama got a lot of tough-guy on him for that.<br /><br />Tea Party has no legs.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00410864482680280393noreply@blogger.com