Chris, you are totally missing the point. "Its about the spending, stupid," (as I saw on a sign at the April 11 tea party). Americans (republicans, democrats, libertarians, and independents) have had enough of the wasteful spending, excessive deficits and public debts, massive corruption, and overreaching of the federal government.
This most certainly did *not* start with the Obama administration, but look at the evidence that the straw that broke the camel's back has finally arrived:
1) Obama condemns earmarks on the campaign trail and then signs a bill with thousands of shamefully wasteful ones that no American citizen could legitimately justify;
2) Obama claims he won't have lobbyists serving in his adminstration, then proceeds to make exception after exception to his own order;
3) several of the people he appoints for top-level positions haven't paid their own taxes (is the tax code too complicated or are they corrupt, or both?);
4) the stimulus bill, rather than being a well-considered blue-print for economic recovery, was a huge and chaotic mass of wasteful spending thrown together by House democrats, none of whom managed to even *read* the bill before voting for it, and leading to the AIG bonus scandal;
5) the 2010 budget being considered by Congress as we speak is larger than the combined budget of the rest of the *world*, while we are less than 5% of the world population;
6) the debt being created (irresponsibly, in the view of most Americans who are managing within their budgets and living) raises the percentage of the annual budget that goes to interest payments alone thereby assuring a crippling tax burden on our children;
7) all this spending has to be PAID for by the taxpayer, who can expect inevitable and significant tax increases in every area of life, which means that Tax Freedom Day -- the day that American have to work to just to pay for their taxes -- was April 13th this year, but next year, it won't be until May 29th, according to the Tax Foundation);
8) government spending is expected to go from 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 80%, which is a jump that should concern any American citizen paying attention to this debacle.
Honestly, Chris, I could go on and on with what I see as the shortcomings of our federal government and the dangerous fiscally inept decision-making that has come out of Washington, especially lately, but this has been a long time coming. Americans are finally waking up, and I, for one, think its about time.
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This most certainly did *not* start with the Obama administration, but look at the evidence that the straw that broke the camel's back has finally arrived:
1) Obama condemns earmarks on the campaign trail and then signs a bill with thousands of shamefully wasteful ones that no American citizen could legitimately justify;
2) Obama claims he won't have lobbyists serving in his adminstration, then proceeds to make exception after exception to his own order;
3) several of the people he appoints for top-level positions haven't paid their own taxes (is the tax code too complicated or are they corrupt, or both?);
4) the stimulus bill, rather than being a well-considered blue-print for economic recovery, was a huge and chaotic mass of wasteful spending thrown together by House democrats, none of whom managed to even *read* the bill before voting for it, and leading to the AIG bonus scandal;
5) the 2010 budget being considered by Congress as we speak is larger than the combined budget of the rest of the *world*, while we are less than 5% of the world population;
6) the debt being created (irresponsibly, in the view of most Americans who are managing within their budgets and living) raises the percentage of the annual budget that goes to interest payments alone thereby assuring a crippling tax burden on our children;
7) all this spending has to be PAID for by the taxpayer, who can expect inevitable and significant tax increases in every area of life, which means that Tax Freedom Day -- the day that American have to work to just to pay for their taxes -- was April 13th this year, but next year, it won't be until May 29th, according to the Tax Foundation);
8) government spending is expected to go from 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 80%, which is a jump that should concern any American citizen paying attention to this debacle.
Honestly, Chris, I could go on and on with what I see as the shortcomings of our federal government and the dangerous fiscally inept decision-making that has come out of Washington, especially lately, but this has been a long time coming. Americans are finally waking up, and I, for one, think its about time.