No Taxation Without Representation

Those who disparage the TEA [Taxed Enough Already] Party movement do themselves and the rest of us a disservice. [There are 10 kinds of people in this world—those who understand the TEA party movement and those who don’t.]

While the stimulus bill may have included a little temporary tax relief (a one-year payroll tax credit of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples, spread throughout 2009 in the form of reduced withholding), higher taxes are surely coming. When George W. Bush took office in 2001, “the National Debt stood at $5.7-trillion”; when Barack H. Obama took office earlier this year, “[t]he National Debt stood at $10.6-trillion”—an increase of just under $4.9 trillion in eight years. Obama’s 2009 budget alone, however, increases the budget another $1.85 trillion. By the end of Obama’s four-year term as president, the deficit will have increased nearly as much as it did under eight years of George W. Bush; by 2019, the deficit under Obama’s plan is projected to be $22.5 trillion.

Obama is the polar opposite of a tax-and-spend liberal only in the sense that he is a spend-and-tax liberal—he’s already doing the spending; the taxing is coming. Anyone who believes otherwise is deluding hemself [gender-neutral pronoun—it’s my blog; I can make up words if I want]. The Democrats have a 60-vote supermajority in Congress and yet may not have the votes necessary, under normal rules, to pass Obama’s health-care plan; for that reason, he is threatening to use the reconciliation process—a rule that allows a simple 51-vote majority and is generally used only for budget bills—to force it through. In other words, Obama is willing to circumvent not only Republicans but moderate Democrats, as well, in order to get his health-care plan pushed through Congress.

To me, that smacks of taxation without representation. Forcing through a health-care plan that will obligate us, as a nation, to spend money we don’t have without allowing my representative a voice in the matter is synonymous with forcing through a tax increase, since we will have to increase taxes to pay for the spending. And don’t try to tell me that the health-care plan is revenue-neutral—Medicare is already on the verge of bankruptcy; what makes you think that ObamaCare will be managed any better? Forcing through a tax increase without allowing my representative a voice in the matter is taxation without representation.

The first tea party, in Boston in 1773, was a protest against taxation without representation. This year’s TEA Party protests are likewise protests against taxation without representation.