Tea Party or Main Street: Who Rules?

[editec]

Main street is divided, too.

hell folks WALL STREET is divided, too.

You don't really think that the crypto masters of wall street aren't the big fish who ate little ones, do you?

Look at the contraction of the banking industry!

 

[edthecynic]

Who rules?

MONEY RULES!

Always has, and always will.

 

[Skull Pilot]

The richest 1% of Americans have increased their "fair" share of national wealth by ten percent since 1979.

They accomplished this feat primarily by bribing Republicans AND Democrats to write favorable tax policy.

Are they expecting too much from government?

Or not enough?

Government is NOT giving them money. They are merely being allowed to keep more of what is theirs.

"all money earned" is not "all theirs," that's not how Countries are run. So they're not "keeping more of what's theirs," they're "paying less taxes."

When Countries cost $0.00 to run, THEN, it's ALL theirs. They don't live in such a Country.

Where did i say all money earned is theirs?

I said they are merely keeping more of what is theirs just as every other person who had a reduction in their marginal tax rates.

And paying less taxes is not a bad thing. Wouldn't you like to pay less in taxes and keep more of what is yours? i know i would.

 

[Skull Pilot]

The richest 1% of Americans have increased their "fair" share of national wealth by ten percent since 1979.

They accomplished this feat primarily by bribing Republicans AND Democrats to write favorable tax policy.

Are they expecting too much from government?

Or not enough?

Government is NOT giving them money. They are merely being allowed to keep more of what is theirs.

"all money earned" is not "all theirs," that's not how Countries are run. So they're not "keeping more of what's theirs," they're "paying less taxes."

When Countries cost $0.00 to run, THEN, it's ALL theirs. They don't live in such a Country.

Where did i say all money earned is theirs?

I said they are merely keeping more of what is theirs just as every other person who had a reduction in their marginal tax rates.

There are ways other tan taxing income to fund government.

And paying less taxes is not a bad thing. Wouldn't you like to pay less in taxes and keep more of what is yours? i know i would.

 

[boedicca]

The richest 1% of Americans have increased their "fair" share of national wealth by ten percent since 1979.

They accomplished this feat primarily by bribing Republicans AND Democrats to write favorable tax policy.

Are they expecting too much from government?

Or not enough?

Government is NOT giving them money. They are merely being allowed to keep more of what is theirs.

"all money earned" is not "all theirs," that's not how Countries are run. So they're not "keeping more of what's theirs," they're "paying less taxes."

When Countries cost $0.00 to run, THEN, it's ALL theirs. They don't live in such a Country.

This is so wrong.

Paying taxes does not mean the government OWNS one's income. Despite the Left's Agenda to turn us into such, We Are Not Government Serfs.

 

[G.T.]

Government is NOT giving them money. They are merely being allowed to keep more of what is theirs.

"all money earned" is not "all theirs," that's not how Countries are run. So they're not "keeping more of what's theirs," they're "paying less taxes."

When Countries cost $0.00 to run, THEN, it's ALL theirs. They don't live in such a Country.

This is so wrong.

Paying taxes does not mean the government OWNS one's income. Despite the Left's Agenda to turn us into such, We Are Not Government Serfs.

No, the Government doesn't OWN one's income. In a free society, a portion of income is used to maintain said society. That comes with being a Citizen.

 

[Skull Pilot]

"all money earned" is not "all theirs," that's not how Countries are run. So they're not "keeping more of what's theirs," they're "paying less taxes."

When Countries cost $0.00 to run, THEN, it's ALL theirs. They don't live in such a Country.

This is so wrong.

Paying taxes does not mean the government OWNS one's income. Despite the Left's Agenda to turn us into such, We Are Not Government Serfs.

No, the Government doesn't OWN one's income. In a free society, a portion of income is used to maintain said society. That comes with being a Citizen.

You mean a portion of everyone's income is taken under threat of violence and incarceration and used to fund all sorts of ill conceived ham handed government programs in social engineering, graft, corruption and pay offs.

 

[georgephillip]

There's a simple solution: flat taxes and no government subsidies, pork, bailouts etc. If there is nothing to gain from a bribe, then the politicians are far less likely to be bought.

How many elected Republicans OR Democrats are currently calling for a flat tax?

Public banking modeled on North Dakota's 92 year-old example is another Change that would benefit over 90% of Americans, but both major parties need Wall Street every day and they only need voters once every two to six years.

"While Wall Street is reporting record profits, local banks are floundering, credit for small businesses and consumers remains tight, and local governments are teetering on bankruptcy. There is even talk of allowing state governments to file for bankruptcy, something current legislation forbids.

"The federal government and Federal Reserve have managed to find trillions of dollars to prop up the Wall Street banks that precipitated the credit crisis, but they have not extended this largesse to the taxpayers and local governments that have been forced to pick up the tab."

Some of the best ideas for change are off the table as long as most voters limit their "choice" to Democrat OR Republican.

 

[Avatar4321]

Tea Party and "Main street" aren't mutually exclusive groups. You're argument is irreelvant.

Oh and 8/27 had many more people than that.

 

[georgephillip]

People who want more from the government always outnumber people who want less.

The richest 1% of Americans have increased their "fair" share of national wealth by ten percent since 1979.

They accomplished this feat primarily by bribing Republicans AND Democrats to write favorable tax policy.

Are they expecting too much from government?

Or not enough?

Government is NOT giving them money. They are merely being allowed to keep more of what is theirs.

Government has given the richest 1% of citizens a ten-percent increase of total national income (not wealth, sorry) since 1979. Each of the five population quintiles have sacrificed, on average, 2% of their income over the last 40 years for the richest one percent of Americans.

Republicans AND Democrats have lowered tax rates and generously provided other tax incentives to ship US jobs to China and Mexico. This has decimated the blue-collar middle class across this country.

The richest 1% have not earned their bigger slice of the pie.
They have bribed corrupt politicians to give it to them.

A Simple Look...

 

[georgephillip]

Main Street typically refers to people who are not idealogues. Tea Partiers are idealogues.

The Main Street Movement that's currently on the rise across the country specifically targets those they claim are waging war on the US middle class.

[/B]

I'm unaware of any Tea Party speakers who've voiced the same concerns.

Just because you call it "Main Street" doesn't make it Main Street. You can call a mule a horse, too, til hell freezes over, but at the end of the day, it's still a mule; and at the end of the day, this little movement of yours looks more like "Red Square" than "Main Street" to me. Try again, Trotsky.

See Any Mules?

"GEORGIA: Hundreds of workers demonstrated outside the Georgia capitol yesterday, declaring their solidarity with striking Wisconsin workers. Some demonstrators wore 'cheesehead' hats, a clear reference to a cultural tradition in Wisconsin.

– "IDAHO: Hundreds of teachers marched against legislation that would layoff 770 teachers and leave schools severely understaffed.

– "INDIANA: In Indiana, House Democrats fled the state, preventing a vote on legislation that would enact 'right-to-work' laws that would’ve crippled the right to organize. After the House Democrats took off, hundreds of workers and students marched into the capitol building and staged a massive sit-in, pledging not to leave until the radical legislation was withdrawn. Yesterday, Indiana’s Main Street Movement scored its first victory as Republican lawmakers withdrew the anti-union bill. Indiana Democrats are refusing to come back until right-wing legislators withdraw legislation to undermine the state’s public education system.

– "MONTANA: More than a thousand 'conservationists, sportsmen, firefighters, teachers, correctional officers and others' descended on the Montana capitol to protest against 'unprecedented GOP attacks on public services and education and laws that protect land, air, water and wildlife.' Students carried signs that read 'Keep Us In School,' protesting crippling cuts to the state’s education system.

""OHIO: In Ohio, thousands of ordinary Americans who rely on the right to organize to earn good, middle class incomes are facing off with Wisconsin-style legislation backed by Gov. John Kasich (R). Nearly 10,000 protesters demonstrated in Columbus, Ohio, gaining the support of former Gov. Ted Strickland (D-OH) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). So many demonstrators showed up that the Ohio Highway Patrol was ordered to lock the doors of the state capitol to stop more demonstrators from getting into the building.

– "TENNESSEE: Hundreds of Tennesseans gathered to protest a bill that would completely strip Tennesee teachers of collective bargaining rights. 'What you have right now is 300 or so of us, standing and asking the state legislature to focus on what the priorities are right now, instead of attacking working people,' said Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action. 'If they listen to us, well then that’s great. … If not, I can see this thing growing.'

–" WASHINGTON: 2,000 demonstrators in Olympia, Washington, marched against the state’s proposed budget cuts that would harm students and middle class Washingtonians and in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. 'If Scott Walker succeeds in ending worker rights in Wisconsin, the birthplace of public servants’ liberty, it could happen here,' said Federation of State Employees President Carol Dotlich."

ThinkProgress

 

[georgephillip]

Right, reducing the burden of taxes is an assault on the middle class. At least you have found love, my friend. "Oh, when I look into your deep loving eyes, I am in bliss, my beloved government..."

Do you prefer being screwed by the rich?

The Governor of Michigan is cutting $1.2 billion from schools, universities and local government as well as asking for $180 million in concessions from public employees while at the same time giving $1.8 billion in tax cuts to businesses.

Are you enamored of Wall Street?

I prefer taking responsible for my own life and won't participate in either your shirking your responsibility to run your life or your sanctimonious efforts to blame someone else for your problems through wealth envy and greed they have more then you and dump your issues on them.

Liberty is the right to do what you want, it is also the responsibility to take responsibility for yourself. In the end, your wealth greed will destroy the economy and take you down with it. It's justice for you and your ilk, but not for anyone else.

Who gets to take responsibility for the richest 1% of Americans increasing their "fair" share of annual national income by ten full percentage points between 1979 and 2007?

Republicans OR Democrats?

Both parties cut tax rates and provided tax incentives to ship US jobs to China and beyond. Both parties conspired to de-regulate Wall Street.

Who paid for those issues?

Koch Brothers?

 

[georgephillip]

"Main Street" is made up of people, individuals, with their own views on politics - some will be conservatives, others will be liberal, most will be more concerned with keeping their business afloat, putting food on the table, and keeping their homes, than caring about much else.

This ridiculous bitching about "Main St" or "Wall St" or any other attempt to lump people into groups is pathetic.

Yet you posted the following...

The TEA Parties are Main Street, you moron.

Still, please do carry on making a total fool of yourself. It's fun to watch.

You seem to lurch from one extreme to the next...interesting.

Do you have a "guesstimate" about how many Tea Party members might be susceptible to joining the Main Street Movement?

 

[georgephillip]

Main street is divided, too.

hell folks WALL STREET is divided, too.

You don't really think that the crypto masters of wall street aren't the big fish who ate little ones, do you?

Look at the contraction of the banking industry!

Do you mean divided in the sense that some believe banks should be even bigger than they are today?

"Speaking on the side of greater reform for the biggest banks, Mervyn King – governor of the Bank of England – gave a forceful interview to the British newspaper The Telegraph at the end of last week.

“'Why do banks in general want to pay bonuses? It’s because they live in a ‘too big to fail’ world in which the state will bail them out on the downside.”

"In Mr. King’s view, casino-type banking caused the crisis of 2007-08.

“'Financial services don’t like the word ‘casino’, but instruments were created and traded only within the financial community. It was a zero sum game.

"No one knew which ones were winners when the crisis hit. Everyone became a suspect. Hence, no one would provide liquidity to any of those institutions.”

“'We allowed a [banking] system to build up which contained the seeds of its own destruction.'

"And 'reform' efforts so far do not amount to much.

“'We’ve not yet solved the ‘too big to fail’ or, as I prefer to call it, the ‘too important to fail’ problem. The concept of being too important to fail should have no place in a market economy."

Battle of The Banking...

 

[georgephillip]

Government is NOT giving them money. They are merely being allowed to keep more of what is theirs.

"all money earned" is not "all theirs," that's not how Countries are run. So they're not "keeping more of what's theirs," they're "paying less taxes."

When Countries cost $0.00 to run, THEN, it's ALL theirs. They don't live in such a Country.

This is so wrong.

Paying taxes does not mean the government OWNS one's income. Despite the Left's Agenda to turn us into such, We Are Not Government Serfs.

We are rapidly becoming corporate serfs.

Are you comforted by the possibility?

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Tea Party or Main Street: Who Rules?

Much like the "opener" says, for the ol' Dragnet (radio, and eventually, T.V.) series said....​

"Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have changed to protect the innocent"

The Game Owner$​

 

[Interpol]

The average anti-war protest during the Bush Regime dwarfed any TEA Party protest to date.

They got little to no coverage.

Thanks Corporate Media.

I remember that, it was a crazy time. The Iraq war was the first one protested by a significant number of people before it was conducted. Previously it had been the case that folks woke up part way through a war like the one in Vietnam, and started asking serious questions they hadn't thought to ask 5 or so years before.

As for Main Street, I understand that to be middle to working class folks, in general.

Both parties have Main St. voters, and while many of their concerns are similar, many of their goals ultimately are not.

In my experiences at both Tea Party and Occupy rallies (I do some videography-type stuff part-time) I found that folks at the TP ones to be, in general, white and over the age of 45. For them, the concern was of a runaway gov't that wished to spend us into a realm where our currency will be worth nothing and we'll be totally turned into something we no longer recognize, slaves to hungry powermongers in gov't controlling our every move.

The debt and Obamacare were the two biggies I noticed the most, and indeed I did see many "Get the Government's Hands Off My Medicare!".

At the Occupy rallies, just when you think you can classify the crowd as young you meet a pocket of college professors over there, some grannies over there promoting their issue, and people of all diversities and a stupefying amount of folks who did not exactly see themselves as liberals or conservatives or even as avid followers of politics the way many of us are here. Some of them were pure Main Street folks who look at Wall Street as the culprit, with Washington turned into a pawn that will simply do their bidding.

Both sides exaggerate certain things. For instance, a Tea Party gathering is rather inviting and the people aren't "crazy" gun-totting, bible-thumping weirdos. They're simply concerned citizens who happen to be totting guns and who proudly mix politics with religion because it's a deeply held conviction they have.

Tea Party gatherings don't demand that you sleep overnight in a park. They plan ahead to gather, they do their thing, make their statement, rally the troops, and then carry on spreading the word about the two or three things they really want to advance the most in our democracy.

The Occupy rallies are messier and at times less-inviting, and at a few of them, not all, some anarchist types and other hooligans usually not associated with Occupy do stupid things like crapping all over something as a grotesque way to protest it, as well as with some of the cases of sexual harassment reported at those rallies.

However, one thing I didn't notice much of was the notion that Occupiers were demanding free stuff from the gov't, which was a criticism that came from from our friends on the right. I can't say they were looking for charity more than they were looking for some pretty basic things like dramatically reducing corporate welfare in America, something I found to be vastly popular among all sectors of Occupy as well as at the Tea Party rallies.

For me personally, I keep trying to understand the sad irony of electing somebody like Paul Ryan only to go and yell at him after he has put forward a bill to voucherize Medicare. He heard it loud and clear from several of his constituents back home, and then basically got it passed again. It's like those folks are voting part of their interests with a guy like him, but then they're shooting themselves in the foot when he tries to basically end Medicare as we know it.

Just from being out that way, I have every confidence that Ryan will win again in his district, but that they'll continue to want to try to put a leash on him or something. And those are Main St. moderate conservatives who are totally for ending oil subsidies but they have a long history of voting Republican and it's like a tradition or whatever, meanwhile, I think maybe they could go with a conservative Democrat, not have to worry about Medicare being overhauled (make adjustments to it, but don't scrap it) while easily getting the votes necessary to end big corporate subsidies that they want to see gone.

The whole point of our democracy is to influence it with our voices not only on election day, but by putting the heat on representatives to get things done, and I say use whoever you need to use to get those things done, no matter what letter they have next to their name.

So it's an interesting makeup of folks who are Main Street America, and although the common purpose is shared, the goals or the aims can be sometimes at odds with the interests of those folks.

 

[Avatar4321]

False dichotemy. But im sure you are aware of that. Is it really necessary to pervert discussion with falsehoods?

 

[G.T.]

This is so wrong.

Paying taxes does not mean the government OWNS one's income. Despite the Left's Agenda to turn us into such, We Are Not Government Serfs.

No, the Government doesn't OWN one's income. In a free society, a portion of income is used to maintain said society. That comes with being a Citizen.

You mean a portion of everyone's income is taken under threat of violence and incarceration and used to fund all sorts of ill conceived ham handed government programs in social engineering, graft, corruption and pay offs.

Well, that's the cynical never-will-be-happy-ever way to look at it.

Of course, the extreme opposite of that is ridiculous - no Government thus no taxes "forcefully" taken - that's just stupid.

Threat of violence? Really? Where's the PHYSICAL-violence penalty written in any Law regarding tax delinquency? Psychobabble.

 

[Skull Pilot]

No, the Government doesn't OWN one's income. In a free society, a portion of income is used to maintain said society. That comes with being a Citizen.

You mean a portion of everyone's income is taken under threat of violence and incarceration and used to fund all sorts of ill conceived ham handed government programs in social engineering, graft, corruption and pay offs.

Well, that's the cynical never-will-be-happy-ever way to look at it.

Of course, the extreme opposite of that is ridiculous - no Government thus no taxes "forcefully" taken - that's just stupid.

Threat of violence? Really? Where's the PHYSICAL-violence penalty written in any Law regarding tax delinquency? Psychobabble.

Don't pay your taxes and refuse to allow the government to seize your property and you'll see violence.