Today, protesters will gather at locations around the state to voice their opposition to “reckless” government spending. The Tea Party, whose acronym stands for “taxed enough already,” has organized to oppose what they perceive as higher taxes from the federal government.
If only the reality matched their rhetoric. In fact, the Obama administration has worked to reduce the tax burden on the average American family – even though critics in the Republican Party and Tea Party repeatedly opposed tax-cutting measures.
- Federal taxes for middle-class families are at a five-decade low [Tax Policy Center, 4/12/2010]
- This year’s average tax refund has increased by nearly 10% [USA Today, 3/23/2010]
- The Making Work Pay tax credit, part of the Recovery Act, awards most families an $800 tax credit (for joint filers; $400 for individual filers) [USA Today, 3/23/2010]
- The recent health care reform legislation included the largest health care tax cut in history for middle class families. It also includes tax credits for small businesses to be able to afford coverage for their employees. [The White House, 4/13/2010]
“If you look at the reality – that the average American family is paying substantially less in taxes than years past – you’ll see that the Tax Day Tea Parties are much more about politics than they are principle,” said Katie Ellis, Communications Director for the Delaware Democratic Party. “The people that are protesting at these rallies, by and large, are the same people who supported the disastrous Bush-era policies that got us into this economic turmoil to begin with. They are now looking to see President Obama fail at any cost – when the reality is, his administration has cut taxes for 95% of working families.”
More than half of the Americans who support the Tea Party movement call their own income taxes fair: Just ahead of Tax Day, a new New York Times/CBS News poll finds that most Americans regard the income taxes that they will have to pay this year as fair, regardless of political partisanship, ideology or income level….Majorities across all income groups, moreover, called their income tax fair. Sixty-two percent of Americans in households earning $50,000 or less said so, as did the same percentage of people in households earning more. Perhaps even more surprising, though, is that even among the 18 percent of Americans who say they support the Tea Party movement, more than half call their own income tax fair. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/poll-most-find-their-income-tax-fair/
