The Irony of Teabaggers

Ok, so apparently there was a Teabagger convention in Nashville a couple weeks ago. Here is what caught my eye about the event:

National Tea Party Nation Convention Ticket more info Ticket for the National Tea Party Convention - includes the Thursday night reception, Friday and Saturday training, and Saturday night closing banquet with keynote speaker Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska (2006-2009) and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential Nominee. See Schedule of Events for meal and schedule details. * Tickets are non-refundable. ** Ticket price does not include hotel accommodations. You can make reservations at the Opryland Hotel by clicking here (password is TEA10).

Ended

$549.00

$9.95

Sold Out

For the people who claim they can't spare another dime in taxes they dished out $558.95 to see the worst speaker on the planet outside of G.W. Bush speak.

It doesn't stop there, the speaker was of course Sarah Palin...Speaking about taxes...


Sarah Palin is at a "tax convention" yet she is a citizen of and once the Governor of one of least taxed states in the Union. Alaska is one of only 5 states that has no sales tax and workers in Alaska pay no state income taxes. How is that possible? The State of Alaska is subsidized by the rest of the tax payers in all the other states. Federal spending accounts for 1/3 of all jobs in Alaska, a state whose citizens are actually wealthier than those in the lower 48. As Governor, Palin herself was petitioning congress (at a time the US was running a deficit) for all kinds of pork projects at a time when oil revenues were at record highs and she was handing out an extra $1200 to every Alaskan citizen on top of the $2000 they already get from the oil dividend fund.

From 2004 to 2008 (Palin was Governor from 2006-2009) Taxpayers for Common Sense reports , Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens had a hand in 891 Alaska-oriented earmarks worth $3.2 billion. That is 18 times the national average. And earmarks represent just a fraction of federal spending in Alaska, which totaled over $9 billion in 2006 alone.

Alaska routinely ranks 1st in Federal Taxes Paid vs. Federal Spending received by states from 1981-2005, meaning Alaskans receive $1.87 in federal funds for every dollar they contribute in taxes, which is the worst ratio in the country. Federal spending per capita in Alaska is 71% higher than the national average. In 2003, federal spending amounted to more than $12,200 per resident of Alaska because Alaska can't support itself without a state income and sales taxes. I think the Teabagers need to realize is that if they want their taxes to go down, Alaskans are going to have to start paying their fair share and stop living off of pork and welfare and stop getting something for nothing. And you thought it was black children with single moms in the ghetto who were getting free handouts and living off your hard earned tax money??? Nope, it's the 699,000 citizens of Alaska. So why is the face of Alaska, who along with the rest of her state are responsible for everyone elses high taxes, speaking at an anti-tax, anti-spending convention? She should be their arch enemy, and I am sure she would be if she were black. But apparently it's ok to lower taxes here in the US, assuming some other government far away is billing their tax payers enough to pick up the slack. If you cut taxes in one place you have to make up for it in others, unless you are from Alaska and then you can just bill the federal government and build a bridge to nowhere.

And as Bill Maher has pointed out, a recent poll showed that almost 90% of the people who identified with the Teabaggers thought taxes had stayed the same or gone up under Obama and only 2% knew that they had actually gone down. Nationally, 24% of the population thought that Obama had raised taxes and only 12% knew that most Americans saw their taxes go down and that no ones taxes have gone up.

And this is a movement that is based on Taxes? It is clear these people don't know anything about taxes.

Not only that, the original Tea Party wasn't even upset about taxes, they were protesting taxation without representation. As you have seen with idiots like Sarah Palin, Dennis Hastert, George Bush, Joe Wilson, Sam Brownback, David Vitter, John Shimkus, Mark Sanford, Michelle Bachman, etc., these people are definitely represented.