My Only Problem With the Tea Bag Protests

[erpowers]

I have one problem with these tea bag protests. Why did they not protest under the Bush Administration. I have been against wasteful spending for years so I can understand some people being upset about wasteful spending. However, my problem is that none of these protests were conducted under the Bush Administration. It was under the Bush Administration that these deficits began to ballon. Yes, it is now Obama's problems, but once again where were these people from about 2003 to 2008. Even some Republicans have admitted that earmarks went up under Republicans. Where were these people when it was reported that Ted Stevens almost got this country to pay $500,000 for a bridge to nowhere. If these people really cared about wasteful spending why were they not conducting these protests every year for years.

[NightWatcher]

1. psst cause Obama's black and they're mad

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Kick and a rec for a good question! n/t

[Mari333]

3. because they are really really dumb people and its more about

racism , their anger at a black man being president, the fact they dont think for themselves, and their anger at being in the minority now. temper tantrum.
I know these people. they are my biological relatives. they are incredibly uneducated. sadly.

I can STICK THIS GRAPH RIGHT IN THEIR FACE

AND THEY WILL TELL ME ITS FAKE AND CREATED BY ACORN..THATS HOW DUMB THEY ARE

[ErinBerin84]

4. born again fiscal conservatives

They just desperately want to yell "uh, do over!", and pretend they are not hypocrites. I can kind of see where libertarians are coming from, but not the born agains. And even though there is turn out for these protests, it really is not that big considering the amount of promotion they got. And Howard Kutz was just on cnn and lied and said that MSNBC covered the tea party thing "a couple times" today. Dude, it was on rotation. Every time I turned it on tv they were covering it, so don't pretend like it was ignored just because it didn't get the Fox wall to wall treatment.

[maseman]

5. Because it is a Klan Rally with the word Teabag masking the three Ks

[bbernardini]

6. They didn't protest under * because they don't consider killing brown foreigners "wasteful spending"

[Barack_America]

7. Because these "protests" were organized by GOP.

And the "protesters" have been whipped up into a faux frenzy by Faux News.

Obviously this was not going to happen when Bush was in the WH.

[bluethruandthru]

8. Exactly!

That's what I've been asking. Why do the tea baggers only care about deficits now when the stimulus money will go to help get this country on track? They're totally okay when Bush was spending billions and billion every single year on his war. They didn't care at all about the no bid contracts for Halliburton or the billions that just "went missing" in Iraq. No problem with that. But, wow..try to spend a few billion on developing green energy or fixing our crumbling infrastructure and those "frugal" republicans are taking to the streets with their teabags and pitchforks!

F'ing hypocrites!

[walldude]

9. Yeah I saw a guy today bitching about decades of wasteful spending

but when asked if he protested Bush's insane deficit increase he just grumbled..

[Bluerthanblue]

10. you have more than one problem then- because

the 'Tea Bag Protests' are as much (if not more-so) about being against Obama, and anything that doesn't fit into the agenda that fuels the hate.

I've participated in many peace vigils and anti-war protests- while there were a few individuals who used our platform to promote other agenda's they were rare- the 'tea baggers' seem to be over-run with mixed messages and off the wall claims-
(Obama= Kim Jong Ill)

This is a facade for some ugly agenda's I believe. The bailouts began with Bush back in 2007. Where were they then?

[leftstreet]

11. Because the Republican Party demanded blind loyalty to Bush

Anyone who broke ranks and criticized his actions was marginalized as unpatriotic.

[Downtown Hound]

12. You're making some huge mistakes in your analysis

The largest one being that you assume these people really give a shit about their taxes being too high. Obama just cut taxes for them. Tell this to any of them, and it goes in one ear and out the other. And like you said, if they were really concerned about the national debt, then why not a peep from them when Bush ran it up to astronomical heights?

You need to understand something, these people are using all of this shit as a cover for the fact that they simply can't stand the fact they're not in power anymore. That's it. Their world view is in danger of being totally rejected by the American public at large, and it terrifies them. So they'll latch onto any issues that they think will strike a chord with the American people. They think they've found it with taxes and government spending, but I think they're in for a rude awakening.

[Coffee and Cake]

13. But Bush has an (R) by his name.

[Liberalynn]

14. Thats exactly the question I have been asking myself all day.

Why do they suddenly care about the deficit? Their Jebus clone Dumbya is the one who ran up the debt. Not President Obama.

Yes I too have noticed conservatives have no problem spending trillions to fight useless wars that have virtually nothing to do with U.S. security, but the minute somebody actually talks about spending U.S. tax dollars in the U.S. and on U.S. citizens and suddenly they get all concerned about the deficit. Makes you want to ask them, "why do you hate America and Americans?" Turn about is fair play after all.

[TahitiNut]

15. It's not the spending they object to. It's the paying for it.

:shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. Especially since all taxes they pay today are Bush taxes.

Obama's taxes won't be paid until next year.

[Postman]

17. Because they're fraudulent faux populism events funded by rightwing wealth.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/2009/04/15/the-real-boston-tea-party-was-against-the-wal-mart-of-the-1770s/

CNBC Correspondent Rick Santelli called for a “Chicago Tea Party” on Feb 19th in protesting President Obama’s plan to help homeowners in trouble. Santelli’s call was answered by the right-wing group Freedomworks, which funds campaigns promoting big business interests, and is the opposite of what the real Boston Tea Party was. FreedomWorks was funded in 2004 by Dick Army (former Republican House Majority leader & lobbyist); consolidated Citizens for a Sound Economy, funded by the Koch family; and Empower America, a lobbying firm, that had fought against healthcare and minimum-wage efforts while hailing deregulation.

Anti-tax “tea party” organizers are delivering one million tea bags to a Washington, D.C., park Wednesday morning – to promote protests across the country by people they say are fed up with high taxes and excess spending.

The real Boston Tea Party was a protest against huge corporate tax cuts for the British East India Company, the largest trans-national corporation then in existence. This corporate tax cut threatened to decimate small Colonial businesses by helping the BEIC pull a Wal-Mart against small entrepreneurial tea shops, and individuals began a revolt that kicked-off a series of events that ended in the creation of The United States of America.