Happy About Taxes?

I was doing a search tonight and somehow stumbled upon this article: Taxed Enough Already?. It's on the Pew Research Center website and it highlights recent polling data that 50% of Americans say they pay a fair share of taxes. The article goes on and on with a lot of numbers discussing the irony of this in light of the Tea Party movement and current outrage at the federal government. The author seems to be trying hard to make the point that we don't really mean what we say.

So 50% of Americans believe they are paying their fair share of taxes? Sounds shocking I know. But what about that 47% of Americans who don't pay taxes? Seems like there might be a little crossover there. I mean, I guess some of those folks might not be able to do the math and maybe they feel like they pay too much, but my guess is that they feel pretty good about their current taxation situation. So maybe there is a whopping 3% in the mix that believes they are getting what they pay for. Then again, that's probably within the margin of error so you could argue that there are no actual taxpayers in America who feel they are getting what they pay for.

I wonder what our current situation would look like if you had to pay taxes to vote.

Enraged vs. Exhausted

On the plane to California last week, my husband handed me this article by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal and said I should read it. It refers to this video, which was widely publicized last week.



Obviously the only video I could find was a little edited. It was the best picture I could quickly find so you could really see the look on Obama's face when he realized he wasn't getting complimented by someone in his hand picked crowd.

This part of the article was interesting. I would like to believe it is true everywhere. From my corner of the world, it's right on. It feels true. The only thing it doesn't click with is how CNN and MSNBC paint the picture.

First, Washington is being revealed in a new way.

The American people now know, "with real sophistication," everything that happens in the capital. "I find a much more knowledgeable electorate, and it is a real-time response," Ms. Blackburn says. "We hear about it even as the vote is taking place."

Voters come to rallies carrying research—"things they pulled off the Internet, forwarded emails," copies of bills, roll-call votes. The Internet isn't just a tool for organization and fund-raising. It has given citizens access to information they never had before. "The more they know," Ms. Blackburn observes, "the less they like Washington."

Second is the rise of women as a force. They "are the drivers in this election cycle," Ms. Blackburn says. "Something is going on." At tea party events the past 18 months, she started to notice "60% of the crowd is women."

She tells of a political rally that drew thousands in Nashville, at the State Capitol plaza. She had brought her year-old grandson. When the mic was handed to her, she was holding him. "I said, 'How many of you are grandmothers?' The hands! That was the moment I realized that the majority of the people at the political events now are women. I saw this in town halls in '09—it was women showing up at my listening events, it was women talking about health care."

Read the entire article - it's good! Noonan also has another good article from this last month that well illustrates the Tea Party. Click here for the link. Good reading folks!

Pulling Out The Big Guns

Ecclesiastes 10:2

"A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left."

The choice is yours this November!

Just 50 days away!