So, if a little deficit is bad then a lot is good? If Bush started something stupid, shouldn’t we stop it instead of doing more of it?

No, I don’t believe that a lot of deficit is good. This deficit is better than running huge deficits during good times (yes, I am a bit Keynesian). What I am arguing is that the protestors claim that they are protesting the policies of the Obama administration, but most of what they are protesting are Bush policies.

I’m a big fan of intellectual honesty. I don’t belong to either party (with my beliefs, neither seems to want me) so maybe it’s easier for me to see the faults on both sides. What I see is the conservative parts of the media stoking an anger for their benefit when those they are stoking don’t realize why they are angry. They point the finger one way, but they should look at the three pointing back at them. What they want protested was done under their guy but they are trying to shift the blame to the other guy.

You may not understand because the website you mentioned as the official one is anything but. This is a grassroots movement with as many organizers as protests. I’ve been following it on http://www.teapartyday.com (no affiliation) and they state their goals on the front page. As your taxes aren’t that high now yet the country is spending more, the net result is that your taxes will go up.

I’m not sure I follow your logic - policies you disagreed with started during the previous administration, so you have no problem if they continue? This isn’t about anger, it’s about raising awareness of the mismanagement of our the nation’s money (by both parties).

Adam, see my comment above. My problem is mainly with the media types that were stoking the flames. I also happen to think the protest does as much good as any number of protest rallies that are quickly ignored by the general population (be it Jesse Jackson or NRA).

And it isn’t about mismanagement by both parties. It’s about mismanagement by the Obama administration and that’s been the refrain that I keep seeing. If it was truly about mismanagement on both sides, I’d have less of an issue with the intellectual honesty of it. Read all of those issues on the front page of the website you provided. Tell me one of them that describes a complaint towards the Republican party.

1. You’re assuming the people who are attending the TEA parties were OK with the Bush spending. I was mortified at the time by Bush’s “In order to save capitalism I was forced to destroy” comment, and agree 100% with the sentiment that any corporation too big to fail needs anti-trust legislation and not a bailout. No, the websites aren’t blasting the Bush administration, but that’s a moot point now, I think you’ll agree. Should they be like Salon.com and our current President and still cling to their Bush hatred as a means to explain all that’s bad in the world?

It wasn’t Bush’s profligate ways but the fourfold increase in deficit spending by the Obama administration that brought the TEA parties into being.

When the outrageous happens, people get outraged.

2. It isn’t so much about the taxes now, (thank YOU, Bush tax cuts!), it’s about the taxes to come. The trillions and trillions of dollars we’re planning on spending now will come due sometime and it’s better to halt the spending now rather than shackle our children and their children for years to come with the bill for re-seeding the Washington Mall and hundreds of bridges to nowhere.

The other question that needs answering is if the Bush deficits were so ruinous, why aren’t the people who were against them way back when part of the TEA party movement of today?

Because we don’t watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh, frankly. I wouldn’t have been welcome at the TEA party locally because it wasn’t a bipartisan, grass roots movement like many backers claim.

Unfortunately, I think Steven Colbert said it best (right around 1:30)

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224723/april-15-2009/tax-atax

I don’t watch the show but I caught this clip online and I think it’s perfect. This wasn’t bipartisan nor grassroots and everyone should simply stop pretending that it was.

And again, the vast majority of the budget deficit was there before Obama took office. Nearly $1 trillion worth of budget deficit was forecasted by the CBO for this year prior to the election. I don’t really see how that’s Obama’s fault. There’s the fourfold increase you spoke about in your comment.

I’m willing to listen, but I still don’t see how it can be hung on Obama.

It’s not so much about Obama, it’s about the current state of Washington. Obama’s budget, the GM bailout, the failure of TARP, the stimulus, it’s all part of the problem. The TEA party protesters want all this turned around, and fast.

While I admit this clip of a pro-TARP Republican getting booed at a TEA party lacks the gravitas, solemnity and meaty substance that is Stephen Colbert :), it aptly shows that people are as sick and tired of the wasteful spending of the likes of Arlen Specter as they are of Jack Murtha’s spendthrift ways.

As I said, I agree that our current tax burden isn’t that heavy. It’s the future that I’m worried about: TARP II, more GM bailouts, more stimulus, more spending and the crushing weight this puts on future generations.

And that’s without bringing up the looming twin disasters of Medicare and Social Security.

The TEA party movement is an outgrowth of the Porkbusters movement, which was as bi-partisan as they come (just ask Ted Stevens or Trent Lott how bi-partisan it was). There is far, far more talk at all the TEA parties about third parties (which, IMO, is a huge mistake) than there is about GOP recruitment or regaining control of Congress.

I don’t care if it’s a Blue Dog Democrat or a moderate GOP’er leading the charge: Government spending is way out of control, and it’s only getting worse, and whichever party has the huevos to stand athwart the Federal budget and yell “STOP!” has my support.