Taxpayers Are Really Tea-ed Off

Tax Revolt: The Boston Tea Party helped free us from an oppressive king. This week’s nationwide anti-stimulus tea party demonstrations have a tougher goal: ending the tyranny of big-spending politicians.

“If you want to stimulate the economy, you just need to reduce the taxes and regulations,” Kansas real estate agent John Todd told the Wichita Eagle, explaining in the clearest terms why he is organizing one of 500 anti-stimulus “tea parties” to take place in cities and towns across America today, April 15, Tax Day.

What the tea parties aim to accomplish is really a much taller order than gaining independence from a tyrannical monarch and far-away parliament two centuries ago. They are trying to persuade Congress and the states to reject what comes perfectly naturally to them: the opportunity to fritter away a fortune in other people’s money, and the idea that we should spend our way out of this economic downturn.

~IBD Editorial
See related WSJ editorial today “Tax Day Becomes Protest Day: How the tea parties could change American politics,” by Glenn Reynolds, here’s an excerpt:

What’s most striking about the tea-party movement is that most of the organizers haven’t ever organized, or even participated, in a protest rally before. General disgust has drawn a lot of people off the sidelines and into the political arena, and they are already planning for political action after today.

MP: Given the national taxpayer outrage and foul mood this week about big-spending politicians, imagine if they went to the voting polls this week, or even this month?

Unfortunately, taxpayer outrage about Big Government usually coincides closely with Tax Day in April, which is way far away from Voting Day in November. As the graphic above shows, it’s been 162 days since we last voted in November 2008, and it will be 202 days before the next election, so Tax Day and Voting Day are almost as far apart as two recurring annual dates can be.

Here’s an idea: Move Tax Day and Voting Day much closer together, like perhaps in the same month or same week, instead of being about 6 months apart. Could’t we vote in April or pay taxes in November?

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