{"id":674,"date":"2009-04-13T07:28:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T11:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/04\/13\/do-tea-parties-protest-too-much\/"},"modified":"2009-04-13T07:28:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T11:28:00","slug":"do-tea-parties-protest-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/04\/13\/do-tea-parties-protest-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Do tea parties protest too much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anti-tax tea parties are taking place across the US, including here in the North Country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Glens Falls Post Star is encouraging readers<\/a> to send political leaders virtual tea bags.<\/p>\n

The Boston Tea Party in 1773 helped ignite a revolution and was the inspiration for similar citizen protests throughout history. This week, we’ve got a chance to ignite another one — a tax revolution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the start, I’ve found this metaphor a little flawed. The Boston tea party was a protest against taxation without representation. But our government is duly elected at all levels: local, state and Federal.<\/p>\n

What’s more, Americans have a long history of punishing elected officials who cut government services. Without taxes, we can’t have those popular programs.<\/p>\n

Here in the North Country, government is — by far — the top employer. We’ve been living on “stimulus money” for decades.<\/p>\n

When you factor in non-profits, hospitals, and nursing homes that rely on government entitlement programs, government makes up the lion’s share of our regional economy.<\/p>\n

So here’s my suggestion. When you mail in that tea bag, or turn up at a tea party rally, be sure to mention which government service you’re willing to give up.<\/p>\n

Don’t name government “waste” or “pork” — those items make up only a tiny fraction of Federal spending.<\/p>\n

To balance our budget we’ll eventually have to make deep cuts to government programs that most of us now take for granted. Things like Social Security, Medicaid, public education.<\/p>\n

We’ll also have to forfeit hundreds, if not thousands, of government jobs here in the North Country — everything from school teachers to snowplow drivers to prison guards.<\/p>\n

So before you shake your fist at the tax collector, take a look at your own purse or wallet. How many dollars in there came from the government?<\/p>\n

And what will you sacrifice to make the government we all elected smaller?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anti-tax tea parties are taking place across the US, including here in the North Country. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}