Tea Party Says Boehner Should Recall Congress

Unfortunately I have to disagree with the entire Tea Party position. I find the following faults with the Tea Party Line:

1) Government should eliminate taxation as a line of revenue

It is a fact that there are those who are not served properly by Capitalism. It is a nice idea that we are all empowered by our ownership of our own labor and thus can move our labor to any endeavor that will be profitable for us. This only considers half of the equation. The other half is comprised of two parts, the type of endeavor to which such labor can be applied and the marketability of said endeavors. For example, neuro-surgeons are nearly always in demand yet, one can hardly claim that all citizens are equally capable of mastering the skills and knowledge necessary to become a neuro-surgeon. The broadest group of people are simply not capable of engaging in most higher-paid professions. However, they are all equally capable of engaging in lower paid professions. When one considers that the potential talent pool exceeds the market's need for said professions it quickly becomes clear that, in the case of lower wage professions, it is the job market, not the labor pool, that determines wages. We have a social safety net for just such individuals. Such a social safety net must be paid for by the government, which by extension means the people, through taxes.

2) We must hold the government strictly the the enumerated tasks as outlined in our constitution

Article 1 Section 8 of our constitution includes the following:

"To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.'

While there are those who claim that "but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States' invalidates the 16th amendment or that the 16th amendment is invalid due to improper or missing signatures such an argument is not considered valid until the Supreme Court of the United States officially declares the amendment unconstitutional.

Space limitations prevent a full analysis of the Tea Party position.

Those who blame the Tea Party for the downgrading of our nations credit are completely correct. The primary reason that such occurred was our failure to maintain a balanced budget. A balanced budget can occur in one of 3 ways: Decrease costs to or below income level, increase revenue to equal or exceed expenses, both decrease costs and increase revenue. The Tea Party had the single minded focus of decreasing costs without increasing revenue.

US Government direct revenue for the year 2010 was $ 2,162.7B while expenses were $3456.2B, a deficit of $ 1,293.5B

Try looking at the 2010 budget breakdown and determine how one can cut approximately $1.3T without causing sever harm to our citizens. I argue that such cannot be done. The only sane way out of this mess is to increase taxes on those who can ost afford it.

If you would like to dispute that higher tax rates existed during booming economic times, there are some good tables at http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html you might want to review.

Now, there are those who would claim that increasing personal taxes decreases business opportunities because it would stifle investment. However, such an argument cannot hold water due to inaccurate assumptions. The stock market is not currently a source of revenue for startup businesses and it has not been such for quite some time. Businesses normally receive their startup capital from institutional loans or from venture capital companies/consortiums. I have found no logical argument to claim that personal taxation limits such investment channels.

Jay Brown of TX 6:11PM August 10, 2011