Of all the letters I have read that tout the "ideals" of the Tea Party, one letter really highlights the incoherence and appalling lack of historical knowledge of the movement. Allow me to debunk some of the writer's statements:
Taxes. The Tea Party always tries to obfuscate the public by showing the percentage of taxes paid by the top 5 percent of earners. They pay more taxes because they make more money. In 2010, the top 400 wage earners earned more than the bottom 17 million combined. The mega-rich pay an average of 15 percent in income taxes and practically nothing in payroll taxes.
The middle class pays between 15 and 25 percent and heavy payroll taxes. In addition, two/thirds of U.S. Fortune 500 corporations and 68 percent of foreign companies paid no federal taxes.
Spending: The writer says we spend money on things that are not in the Constitution like health care, education, retirement and mortgages. In 1776, life expectancy was 35, bleeding was still a popular form of health care and education was available if you were rich, white and male. Is the writer advocating we go back to that?
And mortgages: does the writer think colonists came and walked into Wells Fargo to buy a home from the Native Americans? The Constitution doesn't mention hedge funds either, so shouldn't we get rid of the carried-interest loophole that lets hedge fund managers pay 14 percent income tax?
The Tea Party is incoherent, angry and hypocritical, and that is hardly the embodiment of American ideals.
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