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apparently the tea party is backfiring and is costing taxpayers BIG $$$$.
Local reports indicate that the practice of mailing actual tea bags to legislators has repeatedly raised security concerns, and sometimes forced the evacuation of congressional offices in anthrax-like scares.
in Manchester, N.H., a hazmat team descended on the office of U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter after employees opened an envelope marked "tax protest" and found a bunch of tea leaves.
In Boulder, Colo., the district office of U.S. Rep. Jared Polis recently called for help after a lumpy white envelope with no return address arrived in the mail. The Boulder County Hazardous Materials Response Team found a tea bag and a note reading "We the People, 1773."
the office of Rep. George Radanovich in Modesto, Calif., was evacuated "after an intern in the mailroom came upon a suspicious package that was later found to contain tea." A haz-mat team and the FBI were were called in.
About 20 people from the building, including those in the congressman's office and two mortgage firms, were evacuated as a precaution.
Sending in scanned images and empty tea bags is flooding the postal system.
These tea bag party tax "protesters" are doing nothing but costing taxpayers more money.
way to go!!
This was unintentional; those mailing the teabags did not mean to trigger a security event. I guess some of our elected officials are unaware of the fact that people are concerned about runaway Federal goverment spending and were not aware of the teabag theme. Calling this "BIG $$$" is typical liberal hysterical hyperbole. If this is big money, what would you call the pork laden stimulus bill? Has this cost the country more than the Ted Kennedy memorial that is part of the "stimulus bill" - Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate. $5.8 million?
I don't think his point was to downplay the other spending; but to instead show how the unintended consequences of a harmless protest against wasteful spending- can actually drive further spending. IE- the issue isn't with the concept of a "tea party", the issue is that organizers really need to think long and hard about side-effects of the actions taken because they can often take some of the spotlight away from the real issue.
can someone tell me if they are having a tea party at the concord state house?
Yes they are at noon-so you better get going! My husband and I are going at lunch time to the one in Dover and then after work we will be going to Manchester.
Here is a list-however I believe there are some in Wolfeboro and Rochester as well-although this site does not mention them.
OK. I pay more in a month than this person pays all year. Social Security and Medicare do not count as Federal Income Taxes as those are retirement and health care plans that people pay for while working and get after they retire.
Not true. This post demonstrates the #1 barrier to true Social Security reform. People do not understand how the system works.
When you get your paycheck and you see that Social Security has been taken out, where did that money go? Did the government put that money in an account with your name on it somewhere and when you hit 65 it will write checks from that account and send them to you? Which financial institution has the account? What is your account number? What is the balance? How muich interested did you earn last year? These are questions you would be able to answer if it was actually your money, not just a tax with a special name.
The Social Security taxes that we pay today are used to make Social Security payments today. You are not paying into anything. As soon as your money goes in the door, it goes right back out. There is no money waiting for us when we retire. The money for our Social Security checks will come from future tax payers who have not been born yet.
I know that it is a shell game, but I do get a document that shows everything I have contributed my entire life and what I'll get if I retire at certain ages (62, 66, and 70). The account number is my social security number. The govt does not tell us what the return is as it is pathetic, about 1.8%/year.
I wish I could have opted out of SS and simply invested my money over time and earned far more than the 1.8% the government is giving me. The other factor is that if I die before I collect, my family gets nothing where they'd get an inheritance if it were my own money....
Social Security isn't actually that big of a worry...its outlays are staying at a fairly consistant percentage of GDP barring a bump as baby boomers begin to collect; but its not that alarming.
Medicare & Medicaid costs on the other hand are an ever increasing percentage of GDP. The reasons behind these risings costs are not as simple as "more old people" or "more poor people" either...simply put the cost of care is skyrocketing. Think of this example that I may/may not have brought up before:
20 years ago if you had a bad knee, you walked with a limp and got a cane.
Now you get a 1-off new knee made of exotic materials and can go run a marathon.
Here's a decent chart; taken from the CBO originally:
http://perotcharts.com/images/challenges/challenges26.png (broken link)
The quality of care has increased exponentially, but so has the costs. Likewise since replacements/surgeries, etc are "one off" products there isn't really much of a way to drive down costs since there are few "standard" parts to gain efficiencies from mass production.
The real issues facing this country are (budgetarily):
Medicare
Medicade
Interest on Debt
Discretionary spending (defense for example) is a fairly small percentage of GDP and while it fluctuates based on world climate...stays fairly constant (and has actually shown a downward trend). While splurge discretionary spending accumulation of debt by Bush/Obama, etc may accelerate the process and contribute to the growth of interest on debt payments; tackling it will not solve the problem. The problem is we need to get medicare/medicaid expenses to level out (or reduce) as a percentage of GDP; otherwise all the debates we make over discretionary spending now are rather pointless. Once this is accomplished- then we can tackle discretionary issues (typically much lower $$$ amounts) and start reducing our debt-interest load. Instead- we're focused on low hanging fruit that has little impact over the long term.
PS: I am not saying splurge spending is a good thing or the massive debt we've racked up over the past few years is a good thing. I am saying that these are being used as a smoke-screen of sorts to avoid talking about the REAL issue to our countries future.
So future generations will be paying for our healthcare as well as our retirement and for our wild spending in 2009... It is generational theft. Our grandchildren will be "born broke"...
So future generations will be paying for our healthcare as well as our retirement and for our wild spending in 2009... It is generational theft. Our grandchildren will be "born broke"...
I'd like to change that.
From what I see we are focused on smoke & mirrors rather than the real problems facing this nations financial stability. Think about it: Abortion, Gay Marriage, Baillouts, War...how many times have these topics gotten the people on this board alone arguing/debating? These are easy topics to take a stance on- most people have a view one way or the other. But, now ignore your personal/religious convictions and re-look at them...how much will these issues affect the nations financial stability in 30+ years? Honestly- very little (even the bailout was small $$$ over that scale).
We need to be focused on the growing as a % of GDP (not $) expenses like Medicare & Medicaid. There are HARD decisions to make (ie- is a cane ok for your grandfather who loves to run?) but they need to be made.
We don't focus on these issues now (how many times do you here "social security and medicare"...when the issue is just "medicare")...but we need to. We NEED to.
Wild spending in '08-'09...will mean nothing compared to the non-discretionary spending we'll have in the future...
The Social Security taxes that we pay today are used to make Social Security payments today. You are not paying into anything. As soon as your money goes in the door, it goes right back out. There is no money waiting for us when we retire. The money for our Social Security checks will come from future tax payers who have not been born yet.
Funny, didn't they just bust someone for the same exact activity?
Quote:
Dictionary: Pon·zi scheme (pŏn'zē) pronunciation
An investment swindle in which high profits are promised from fictitious sources and early investors are paid off with funds raised from later ones.
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