Happy Teabagger Protest Day!

Toiling diligently against the interests of working families

Today is tax day and many Republican extremists and their rightist allies are celebrating with teabag parties denigrating the country in an orgy of selfishness. The DCCC is marking the day by reminding voters in selected districts that their congressional representative opposed President Obama's tax cuts for working families and his economic recovery package. The DCCC is reminding voters that "Representative Young [and that goes for either Don in Alaska or Bill in Florida] just said no to the largest middle class tax cut in history that immediately puts money back in their pockets and helps families afford college tuition for their kids."

Explaining the radio ads they are running in several Republican-held districts, Jennifer Crider, the DCCC Communications Director tied it to today's events. “This year on Tax Day, Michigan’s middle class families can thank Representative Thaddeus McCotter for voting against middle class tax cuts that put money back in their pockets to help them make ends meet during this economic crisis. Times are tough, middle class families who are worried about keeping their jobs and paying for their kids’ college education want action in the form of middle class tax cuts and economic recovery, not Representative McCotter’s 'just say no' obstruction.” Listen to the ad running in Wayne and Oakland Counties today:



The ads in Livonia and Detroit radio can almost be heard in South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana; but they can't. The DCCC would have to change the name "McCotter" and run them on stations in those two hard-pressed cities to let the voters know that the congressman from that district, who has opposed President Obama nearly as much as McCotter-- and who has voted against some of the same bills the DCCC is complaining that McCotter obstructed-- also deserves to be defeated in 2010. But they won't do that because the congressman from Indiana's second district is Joe Donnelly, a quasi-Democrat. Aside from neo-Confederate kook Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Donnelly has spent more time crossing the aisle to vote with the Republicans against Obama than any other Democrat. Odd in a district where McCain could only muster 45% of the vote. At least Childers can point out that Obama only drew 38% in his district and that supporting his policies could be very dangerous politically. Donnelly's constituents, on the other hand, voted for the very tax cuts and agenda for change that Obama proposed and Donnelly opposed. Joe Donnelly doesn't deserve to serve another term in Congress-- especially not as a Democrat-- any more than Thaddeus McCotter does.

Yesterday George Harrison was posthumously given a star on Hollywood Blvd-- actually around the corner on Vine in front of the old Capitol Records tower. Here's a little clip I put together of the tongue-in-cheek song he wrote to kick off the 1966 album Revolver by The Beatles, dedicated to the 176 Republicans and 20 Democrats who voted against President Obama's middle class tax cut on April 2, especially Thaddeus McCotter and Joe Donnelly, and to the 750 teabagger parties being thrown to protest a slight rise in the tax rate for millionaires to help finance a decrease in taxes on the middle class. Some of the very worst shills for the richest families in America, like John Boehner (R-OH) and Paul Ryan (R-WI) will be speaking at some of these rallies although they voted against President Obama's tax cuts. Most members of the Republican Party Establishment, however, are avoiding the teabaggers. Mitt Romney is hiding under his bed of course-- way too close to Bastille Day for him-- and Governors Palin, Huntsman and Barbour are all staying away-- as are Eric Cantor and Miss McConnell.

The conservative grass roots are into them-- thanks in part to Fox and [hate] talk radio-- but the enthusiasm has not spread throughout the party to the point that these events are command performances for Republican officials.

The concern, it would seem: being associated with a flop or an event that one cannot control and may feature language not entirely keeping with mainstream political discourse.

Teabagger Tax Day from Howie Klein on Vimeo.


Unlike the crazy, violence-spewing Republicans being herded little sheep into their teabag parties, President Obama is marking tax day by underscoring his administration's commitment to restoring the kind of fairness to the tax code-- providing relief to ordinary working families-- that was wrecked by decades of Republican ideological dominace in DC.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is based on the simple premise: what is good for working families is good for the economy and what is good for the economy is good for working families. Specifically, cutting taxes for working families helps to create jobs because these families are the most likely to spend the money. And staving off a deep recession disproportionately helps working families that would have been most likely to get hurt by the recession. Here are some of the highlights of the plan:
 
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: A Plan to Create Jobs and Help Families
 
*     95% of all working families  will receive a tax cut
 
*     70% of the tax benefits goes to the middle 60% of American workers
 
*     2 million families will be lifted out of poverty by the tax cuts in the Recovery Act
 
*     More than $150 billion in tax cuts will help low-income and vulnerable households during the economic recovery
 
*     About 1 Million jobs will be created or saved by these tax cuts alone
 
*     Already, over $3 billion of tax credits have been paid out to first-time homebuyers.