Tea Party (Boston?)
March 5, 2010
In 2008 out of growing frustration for government, taxation, and spending a bipartisan group of citizens formed to repel how monies was being spent formed what is called the “ Tea Party” movement. This group’s initiatives demonstrate their free speech rights rallying to reduce the size and wasteful spending of government among other goals. The words of Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price said” it is to me a new consolatory proof that wherever the people are well-informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things gets so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to right”. Tea Parties are not centralized in leadership but each group is allows self-governance of each localized group. A lot of the demonstrations over health care reform of late are primarily Tea Party members based on media sources (Huffington, Fox, CBS, and others).
The expression associated with the name “Tea Party” reminds me of the first known tea party where the original 13 colonies were being taxed by Parliament imposing restrictions on the purchase of tea . The dumping of 342 crates of tea in the Boston Harbor was a way of renouncing British rule. A maturing nation desires more independence and fewer restraints while the goal of the monarch should be to facilitate this endeavor without the use of an overbearing governing. Notwithstanding the battle of 1776 ensued and the many lives that were loss their actions or inactions in hind sight can be a lesson to many. Could Britain have learned better leadership qualities by being more proactive instead of reactive? Would the original 13 colonies been better off if they would have tried harder to reach an amicable agreement? Could either side have offered a more win-win resolution?
As a child back in Memphis I would jokingly talk about throwing tea into the Mississippi river. Reared in a family of 9 siblings I would make a threat of going without food to try and get what I wanted. My siblings had no problem with these initiatives since it meant more for them. The lesson I learned was to be sure to have something worthy of debate and for safe measures have a stash of food hid away because leftovers were futile. Point and case is that the Tea Party rallies may be the best thing to show opposition but its partisan agenda makes it more like a far right wing coalition. I am wondering whether they have even bothered to consider if their rallying is still worthy or should they move on to something else. Below are the spending cost of the 4 previous presidents, and the current projected (2010 -2015) cost based on the most recent government expenditure report;
TOTAL GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES BY MAJOR CATEGORY OF EXPENDITURE AS PERCENTAGES OF GDP: 1980–2015 (http://www.whitehouse.gov) | |||||||
Fiscal Year | Total Government Spending | Defense and International Spending | Health Reform Allowance (Spending) | Federal Payments For Individuals | Veteran Medical Care | Medicaid | |
Social Security and Medicare | Other | ||||||
1980 | 31.3 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 4.7 | 6.5 | 14.0 | |
1981 | 31.5 | 5.6 | 5.9 | 4.8 | 7.0 | 16.8 | |
1982 | 32.8 | 6.1 | 6.3 | 4.8 | 7.5 | 17.4 | |
1983 | 33.3 | 6.4 | 6.5 | 5.0 | 8.3 | 19.0 | |
1984 | 31.6 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 4.3 | 8.9 | 20.1 | |
1985 | 32.5 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 4.1 | 9.5 | 22.7 | |
1986 | 32.5 | 6.5 | 6.1 | 4.1 | 9.9 | 25.0 | |
1987 | 32 | 6.3 | 6.1 | 4.0 | 10.3 | 27.4 | |
1988 | 31.6 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 10.8 | 30.5 | |
1989 | 31.5 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 3.9 | 11.3 | 34.6 | |
1990 | 32.5 | 5.5 | 6.2 | 4.0 | 12.1 | 41.1 | |
1991 | 33.5 | 4.9 | 6.4 | 4.6 | 12.9 | 52.5 | |
1992 | 33.4 | 5.0 | 6.6 | 5.1 | 14.1 | 67.8 | |
1993 | 32.4 | 4.7 | 6.8 | 5.2 | 14.8 | 75.8 | |
1994 | 31.8 | 4.3 | 6.8 | 5.0 | 15.7 | 82.0 | |
1995 | 31.6 | 3.9 | 6.9 | 5.0 | 16.4 | 89.1 | |
1996 | 31 | 3.6 | 7.0 | 4.9 | 16.6 | 92.0 | |
1997 | 30.1 | 3.5 | 6.9 | 4.7 | 17.1 | 95.6 | |
1998 | 29.5 | 3.2 | 6.8 | 4.6 | 17.5 | 101.2 | |
1999 | 29 | 3.1 | 6.5 | 4.4 | 18.2 | 108 | |
2000 | 28.8 | 3.2 | 6.3 | 4.4 | 19.5 | 117.9 | |
2001 | 29.2 | 3.1 | 6.5 | 4.5 | 21.0 | 129.4 | |
2002 | 30.4 | 3.5 | 6.7 | 5.1 | 22.3 | 147.5 | |
2003 | 31.3 | 3.9 | 6.8 | 5.4 | 24.1 | 160.7 | |
2004 | 30.9 | 4.1 | 6.7 | 5.2 | 26.9 | 176.2 | |
2005 | 31 | 4.3 | 6.8 | 5.1 | 28.8 | 181.7 | |
2006 | 31.1 | 4.2 | 7.0 | 5.0 | 29.9 | 180.6 | |
2007 | 30.9 | 4.2 | 7.3 | 4.8 | 32.3 | 190.6 | |
2008 | 32.3 | 4.5 | 7.4 | 5.3 | 37.0 | 201.4 | |
2009 | 36.1 | 4.9 | 8.3 | 6.4 | 41.9 | 250.9 | |
2010 | 5.5 | 46.2 | 275.4 | ||||
2011 | -7.0 | 49.4 | 296.7 | ||||
2012 | -17.0 | 51.7 | 273.7 | ||||
2013 | 1.5 | 53.1 | 292.1 | ||||
2014 | 29.5 | 54.5 | 313.0 | ||||
2015 | 72.5 | 56.1 | 336.2 | ||||
The fact that the Tea Party believe that health care is unconstitutional was founded on the same issues that the bill was passed. Do Americans need a government sponsored plan? The bill by many looks like an idea whose time has come from the many times it was voted down in the House of Rep. I personally wish that the GOP would have supported a version of a health care bill or made the current one more bipartisan. Currently 10 states are trying to repeal the bill on the grounds that it is unconstitutional based on their lawsuit. Let us hope that the history books will view the current Tea Party uprising as positive as it did the original Boston Tea Party that brought independence.
