Paul Begala on Teabagging - good piece

[sledgehammer]

<snip>

For those who wear a military uniform, those who serve the rest of us as policemen and firefighters and teachers and other public servants, every day is patriots' day. They work hard for our country; many risk their lives -- and some lose their lives.

But for the rest of us, the civilian majority, our government asks very little. Except for April 15. On this day, our government asks that we pay our fair share of taxes to keep our beloved country strong and safe.

<snip>

This country has showered me with the blessings of liberty. So what do I owe my country in return? Paying my fair share of taxes, it seems, is the least I can do. Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Congress, 95 percent of Americans will get a tax cut this year. No one -- not even the wealthiest 1 percent -- will have to pay higher income taxes until 2011.

So why are a bunch of Fox News clowns and right-wing cranks hosting "tea parties" all over the country? The Boston Tea Party, in case the clods at Fox didn't know it, protested "taxation without representation." Note the second word: without. The goofballs tossing tea bags today have representation. They voted in the election; they lost.

<snip>

Give me a break. Instead of tossing tea bags for the cameras, the Fox phonies ought to go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. There they would find better, braver men who have truly sacrificed for their country. They deserve nothing but the best -- not the shameful and shoddy conditions they endured during the Bush administration.

You want something to protest? How 'bout protesting how little we give back to our veterans? Or how 'bout protesting that the entire budget of the National Cancer Institute (where government researchers battle a disease that will strike half of all men and a third of all women) is 0.03 percent of what we gave the bandits at American International Group alone? Oh, but veterans benefits and cancer research might cost money. It might require -- dare I say it? -- paying taxes.

If the whiners at Fox News want to advertise their selfishness, they are free to do so. But please don't dress it up as patriotism. Patriotism is putting your country ahead of yourself -- which is the precise opposite of what the tea party plutocrats are doing.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/15/begala.taxes/index.html

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Well-written. Interesting that the teabaggers are using public transport and public roads to get to public places, so that they can protest the taxes being used to...oh wait, let's not let logic get in the way!

Funny how the people getting a tax cut are protesting, and those who will get a tax increase in 2011 will probably sit comfortably at home and laugh at these "morans".

I hope this is an annual event. It's very entertaining!

[screembloodymurder]

1. Great piece.

K&R

[Cha]

2. Excellent, Paul Begala..thank you.

the teabaggers are just like norm coleman..really bad LOSERS.

[nashville_brook]

3. apparently the "Country First" slogan didn't resonate.

[Rebel Scum]

6. No...it was and always will be "Me First" for these teabagging fools.

[Tutankhamun]

4. K&R

[DrZeeLit]

5. Bravo!

[AmyCamus]

7. Begala has mad skills at pounding idiots down with their own hammers.

"This country has showered me with the blessings of liberty. So what do I owe my country in return? Paying my fair share of taxes, it seems, is the least I can do."

That's the way I see it too.