Ed Morrissey makes reasonable albeit unrealistic case for tea parties

Ed Morrissey of HotAir links to a new Gallup poll called "Views of Income Taxes Among Most Positive Since 1956" (link) and opines [1]:

If 48% believe that their taxes are just right, it might be because that’s the exact same percentage that will pay zero in the near future, according to Barack Obama’s tax policies. With Obama’s emphasis on refundables, 48.7% of Americans will wind up paying no income tax at all. For them, zero is the right amount, and they have no reason to be unhappy... yet ...Unfortunately, in a short period of time, even those people will have to start paying taxes, and not in small amounts...

And that's due to all the spending that Obama is doing now; see this. And, this would definitely be a powerful argument that could swing millions around to opposing Obama's policies, with a couple of caveats:

1. Will the actual long-term impact be as described? Isn't it possible that the experts are wrong, have interests they aren't disclosing, and so on? How would those experts answer their critics? Have their ideas been tested through debate?

2. Morrissey's argument is most definitely not the one that the tea parties are projecting to the world. Rather, their objection is to taxes in general, and in many or most cases not out of ideology but simply out of extreme self-centeredness. Many leftie useful idiots actually want what's best for the U.S., even if what they support would actually be counter-productive. Many or most of those at the "parties" have absolutely no interest in what's best for the U.S. All they care about is what's best for them.

[1] hotair.com/archives/2009/04/15/tax-day-and-tea-parties-the-writing-on-the-wall

Wed, 04/15/2009 - 21:34 · · Importance: 4