Tax Day TEA Party

Today in St. Paul, MN, and in cities all across these United States, there are TEA parties scheduled. What are they, and why are they happening? Although it has been more of an explanation after the fact in my opinion, TEA has been mentioned be an acronym for, "Taxed Enough Already." TEA party.

The historical roots of the name lies in the original Boston Tea Party in 1773. The following quotations are taken from http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm. According to the site, "Victory in the French and Indian War was costly for the British. At the war's conclusion in 1763, King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war."

"...The colonies refused to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts claiming they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no representation."

This is important to what is going on today. Taxation without representation is not explicitly prohibited in the Constitution of the United States. The phrase came into popularity during the time preceding the Boston Tea Party. What is in the Constitution (although adjusted by the 16th Amendment) is a requirement for an "apportioned" tax. This brings up another issue why people are supporting the rallies today. The arguable unconstitutionality of the 16th Amendment. Many people are not aware of this as a motive for organizing today. I would suggest that most people just feel like they are paying enough in taxes already.

As an example to the popular reason for the rallies, look at who actually pays for the governmental services that the income tax funds. This page of the National Tax Payers Union shows that the upper 50% of the people that filed their taxes (based on 2006 figures) pay 97.01% of the total tax budget. What?! The income tax system is a wealth redistribution system. According to those figures, almost no one in the bottom 50% of tax payers contribute any money towards government's spending addiction. But they still actually file and get a return. Wealth redistribution. I feel that this should be enough to motivate you to speak out and show some support for making adjustments to our tax system and the IRS.

Oh, by the way, before the 16th Amendment there was the "Pollock" case in the Supreme Court that ruled that a similar tax was unconstitutional. Some people believe that the 16th Amendment was never "officially" ratified. The entire 16th Amendment issue is obviously the subject of much scrutiny and debate.

Even if taxes aren't your "cup of tea" for issues to stand up for, we should stand together as Benjamin Franklin suggested with his, "Join or Die" campaign in which he argued that we need to stand together as a nation or we will fall. From Franklin's depiction of the snake divided came the Gadsden Flag, touting the, "Don't Tread On Me" motto. A variation of the Gadsden flag was waved during the American Revolution in Culpeper County, Virgina. In the spirit of the original intent of the founding of this great nation, I feel a strong link back to that time and those intentions depicted in what is called the Culpeper Minute Men Flag. Let's stand together as Americans and remind those in government that they are there because we voted for them, and they have limited power to represent us; not seek their own gain or agendas.

Liberty or Death!