While several elements of the tea party's agenda are admirable, taken as a whole they spell disaster for the country. First, the tea party demands a balanced federal budget. Second, the tea party agenda calls for a cap on annual growth in federal spending, limiting it to the sum of inflation and population growth. These two points make sense. Third, the tea party agenda calls for a single-rate income tax system. This would save money by making the IRS largely irrelevant, but it would benefit primarily the wealthy. Finally, the tea party would reduce taxes, repealing all recent increases and making the Bush tax cuts permanent. This seems to contradict the third point, but the effect would be similar.
What the tea partiers don't explain is how they are going to balance the federal budget by decreasing tax revenue and, at the same time, allowing federal spending to increase by a certain percentage each year. Somehow the math doesn't make sense.
The tea party agenda also does not address the source of our economic troubles: increasing inequality. As the wealthy accumulate more wealth they don't need, an increasing number of families fall through the cracks. This calls for either more government intervention or an appalling callousness of heart. I think I know where the tea party stands on this question.
Roger Terry
Orem