At yesterday’s pathetic Teabagging event at Westlake Center, anti-tax entrepreneur Tim Eyman told the small crowd of angry, confused white people:
“We can’t trust the politicians to decide how big the tax burden should be. People should decide because we are the ones paying the bill.”
And really, that’s all we’re talking about, isn’t it? I’m not asking legislators to impose an income tax, I’m merely asking them to put the option on the ballot so that voters can decide for themselves. Give voters a choice between accepting devastating cuts in crucial social services, paying for them with a sales tax increase, or paying for them with a high-earners income tax.
Just give voters a choice. How could Tim, or anybody else, argue with that?
Sounds fair to me.
From Dori Monson’s blog:
– The legislature is going to spend more in the next budget cycle than they are in the current.
– Washington state spending has increased nearly 40% in the last four years.
– We are the highest-taxed Western state in the nation. Oregon has an income tax but no sales tax – their economy is horrible. So is California’s with both income and sale taxes. The tax structure is not the problem – it’s the out-of-control spending by these democratic state governments.
Here’s what I said on Olympia’s Capitol steps at today’s Tea (Taxed Enough Already) party — I gave a similar speech at the Westlake Center’s Tea Party in Seattle at 5:00 pm:
Do you know what makes us different than the other people who come down to Olympia to protest?
We represent the taxpayers – the ones pulling the wago – we’re speaking on behalf the people who are paying for all this stuff we call government.
And we, the taxpayers, are totally tapped out — we’re already paying more than our fair share.
For 10 years, the voters have approved tax initiative after tax initiative. 695’s 30 dollar car tabs, 747’s 1 percent property tax cap, 900’s performance audits, 960’s 2/3’s for tax increases, and now, this year’s 1033, the Lower Property Taxes Initiative.
They all have the same theme: we can’t trust politicians to decide how big our tax burden should be – the people need to take charge and decide that. Because we, the people, are the ones payin’ the bills.
Think of government like a big pie. With our initiatives, we’re not asking voters to decide how they want the pie to be divided up. What we’re doing is letting voters decide how big the pie should be. Because no matter what, we need to make sure that the pie – government – doesn’t grow so fast that it completely bankrupts us.
All of us feel it – our tax burden keeps growing faster and faster and government keeps getting bigger and bigger – the people are losing control. 1033 is our last, best chance to gain control of our government.
1033 aggressively tackles our state’s property tax crisis by controlling the growth of government. 1033 substantially reduces property taxes by capping government’s growth. It’s needed now more than ever.
We’re all here at today’s Tea Party to tell politicians that we can’t afford higher taxes. But an even more effective way to communicate that is with Initiative 1033.
We’ve been collecting voter signatures for 75 days and we’ve got 75 days to go. We’ve had a strong start but we need your help to get the necessary 300,000 signatures by the July 3rd deadline.
Please … sign a 1033 petition today.
Please … give me your partially filled and fully filled petitions before you leave here.
Please … take a bunch of blank petitions home with you. We ask all of you to be foot soldiers for 1033 over the next 75 days, filling ‘em up and sending ‘em in.
Please … donate to our campaign so we can get as many petitions before the voters as possible.
Olympia’s politicians and our critics want to ignore us and dismiss what we’re saying today. Getting 1033 on the ballot will make it impossible for them to ignore us.
Let’s make Initiative 1033’s vote in November the ultimate tea party.
Thanks for listening and thank you Evergreen Freedom Foundation for sponsoring this incredible event. Thank you.
— END —
http://www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com
Troll @2,
And Dori is wrong on all counts. But then what do you want from a guy who absolutely insisted on air that the common cold is NOT caused by a virus?
Dori’s a damn fine talk radio host, in some ways, a bit of a role model for me. But he’s an entertainer, and nothing more, so I certainly wouldn’t rely on him for facts.
Good on you, Tim!!
Tim @3,
So then Tim, we agree. The people should decide whether they want a high-earners income tax, no the legislators.
Goldy said:
“Dori’s a damn fine talk radio host, in some ways, a bit of a role model for me. But he’s an entertainer, and nothing more…”
Oh, and you’re not an entertainer? I think you’ve got an inflated opinion of yourself, Goldy.
@3:
@6: Yes, and I’m tired of Tim Eyman pulling my wago.
Incorrect @7,
I am an entertainer. (At least I try to be.) But as I’ve proven again and again by the news and analysis I’ve produced, I’m a lot more than just that. In fact, I’d dare say that regardless of my open bias, there is nobody in WA’s media who is better versed in the details of our state’s tax structure than I am.
If you’re not here to be informed, then you’re here to be entertained. But you’re here nonetheless. Goldy produces a product and you consume it.
Tim supports an income tax vote
Tim supports an income tax vote
la la la – la la la
But Goldy, rich people might not like that and they would move to another place where they won’t pay their share!!
Wow, Tim is stupid, as are most of his fellow wingnuts. Unless you want to fundamentally change the government structure of the United State, our elected leaders ARE supposed to set the tax rate. Didn’t you go to school? Have you people ever READ the Constitution (Federal or state?) We don’t have a national Democracy, we have a Federal Republic. The people don’t want to get bogged down in the details of complex government functions, so we vote for elected leaders to do the details. Don’t like them, then vote for someone else. That’s how it works.
How dumb is the public? Congress has a 27% approval rating in the abstract, but a 98% re-election rate. Everyone complains about taxes, waste, etc…but THEN votes for “their guy” over and over and over.
Hey Tim! Don’t like paying taxes (of course you still want the services)! Then vote for people who will promise to cut your taxes in half! Problem solved! Why is this so damn hard to understand. HEY! Tim! Why not run for office YOURSELF! Then YOU can do it! Of course, you WOULD have to actually DO something, cut half the state budget, and face all the folks that impacts, so you’re not going to run for office, just sit back and throw stones like the other children.
You remind me of the tea-baggers who don’t like a black President…I mean taxes. Of course their taxes were just CUT, and BOY has that made them angry (scratches head). Where were these “patriots” when Bush (or Reagan) was running of our debt, without even the “excuse” of a national bailout. Did they mind Reagan bailing out the SNLs? Nope. Did they mind the Bush creating the $500 billion Medicaid welfare program? Nope.
goldy, if there were 1000 people at westlake yesterday then that would be far larger than almost any of the anti-war protests and other protests there since the beginning of the iraq war in march 03. so why are you calling it small?
second, what the hell is your problem with a protest with a lot of white folks at it? are you a racist? experiencing some kind of weird lefty shame? can you do a post explaining your reasons for pointing out people were white?
Here is how Goldy can achieve political common ground with Eyman. Very simple — Goldy can find a multimillionaire sugar daddy (or sugar mommy) to kick in about a million dollars of his/her own money. Goldy can spend about $600,000 of that money to hire signature gatherers to put his state income tax initiative on the ballot for this coming November. (Better hurry, since signatures must be turned in by early July for initiatives.) Goldy can take the other $400,000 and use the money to pay himself for his services. And of course, Goldy can take advantage of the expensive lesson learned by Eyman a few years ago, and make sure that he files accurate PDC reports when he uses the other $400,000 to pay himself.
Harry Callahan, did you notice how peaceful these protesters were compared to the libtard anarchists at the G20 Summit? Or you can see Tom Tancredo at the UNC and the libtard progressive responses. And you can see part2.
This is the difference between conservatives and the libtard progressives!
Tooooooooooooooooo
Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad
Free speech has no meaning to a libtard progressive.
Of course as usual, slimey little one-sided worm Goldy fails to report all the facts and makes no mention of the thousands of large and successful TEA party turnouts. Shocking, but I would expect no less from our favorite resident unemployed fanatic, whose mind is frequently fuzzy over extreme jealously over the Seattle Times, and good buddy Tim Eyman. :)
In WA.:
http://www.bellinghamherald.co.....72561.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ly15m.html
Yup keep that massive spending bastard going, no one, not even China, will even invest in Obama’s spending any more. But then he did earn a few million last year, so what the F. let’s shoot for a 3 trillion dollar defecit in one year.
But we all deserve a Personal stimulous package of a Million or so, while he’s at it.
So I am agreeing with you Libs that trickle down economics is wrong, but Obama is piling Billions into top down dribbling economics. I am now adopting the Bottom up CHANGE you are all harping about and so F’n willing to buy into, so where the hell is the Million dollar per citizen Stimulous package to upgrade our homes to GREEN WHEENIE, and Buy a New Car, and Pay off that mortgage, So where’s our share?
Not much to say about that Trickle UP economics you all seem to be sold into.
Fact is businesses in this state are shutting down. Grocery stores, Joes Sporting goods, Linnen and things, Restaurants all over, Boeing , Qwest, UW,
But be assured, State government is hiring 10 people per week to handle the tax collections, and to do what for getting people trained for new jobs……Pay 40% more and we will give you an advanced education, but we’ll offer no classes for you to go to…….
Liberalism, a F’n Lost cause!
Troll @ #2
Dori has a little trouble with facts sometimes. He cherry picks what makes his argument sound good.
For instance his tax number is in raw dollars. It should actually be corrected for income. It makes a big difference. Using the Dori number did you know the great Republican state of Wyoming is number 9…right behind us?
Dori said on the air once that the success of Soutwest Airlines was due to them being non union. I sent him a message correcting him but not letting facts get in the way he repeated the same line a month later. I’ll let you go on the web and see how many unions there are actually are at Southwest. Suffice to say they are one of the more heavily union represented airlines.
Remember when Dori said our debt per person was worse than California? He goofed, got corrected by Dave Ross (who can divide by 2) and promptly shut up about that point. I never heard a correction.
Hmmmm . . . Mr. Eyman at 3 lays out a lot of points.
I’m genuinely curious, what is the total of the revenue shortfall to the state if all of his tax cutting measures were added up?
I’m sure it wouldn’t equal the total revenue shortfall, but I’m interested in learning how much Mr. Eyman’s initiatives contributed to this budget crisis?
I think what we might have here is a classic case of unintended consequences.
Oh, yeah because all their financial troubles came in the last 12 weeks.
Grow up.
No. Hold that thought. Keep saying and doing those things. That’s what got Republicans booted out of office in the first place.
Yes. Continue to be the party of no ideas and no responsibility. Americans have seen right through that line of bull shit for the last two election cycles.
What? Do you really think you’re going to take control of the House and Senate in 2010 and put that lying, white-trash, Wasilla Hillbilly in the White House in 2012.
Good luck with that. You chump.