Tea Partyers in Wonderland
The mythmongers in Tea Party land and millions more Americans seem to prefer
fiction to fact.
By Barbara Koeppel
TheNation.Com, In the August 2/9, 2010 edition of The Nation
Based on a mid-April New York Times/CBS News poll of about 1,600 adults, we
learned that 52 percent of Tea Party supporters believe "too much has been
made of the problems facing black people." Could it be because 89 percent of
the Partyers polled are white? They also have above-average incomes: 31
percent of Tea Partyers earn more than $75,000 a year, as opposed to 26
percent of all poll respondents. A cool 68 percent of Tea Partyers consider
themselves middle-class or above. And they're very angry about government
spending. As one woman says, "I'm sick and tired of them wasting money"
(though she probably doesn't want her Medicare or Social Security touched).
If the Tea Partyers think too much is made of problems facing blacks and too
much is being spent, can we conclude, ergo, that they think blacks are
getting too many handouts? If so, they would not be alone. And they would
also be mistaken. In the 1970s their predecessors' prevailing wisdom was
that welfare moms drove Cadillacs and luxuriated in government largesse
while others (substitute hard-working white folks) were kept from the cookie
jar.
So let's set the record straight-for then and now.
One way to see whether blacks are getting too much attention is to look at
how funds from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the stimulus
package) were distributed among racial groups. Arloc Sherman, a researcher
at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who checked
about 25 percent of the stimulus outlays that went directly to households,
found that for every dollar of government benefits-such as for child tax
credits, extended unemployment payments and a hike in food stamps-about 64
cents went to non-Hispanic whites, 16 cents to Hispanics, 6 cents to others
and 15 cents to non-Hispanic blacks. The percentages roughly correspond to
the different groups' numbers in the population-hardly a windfall for
blacks.
The Tea Partyers probably just don't like the poor, period-or that the
government provides them with benefits. Although 15 million Americans are
out of work and haven't found jobs for months, 73 percent of Tea Partyers
think benefits encourage the poor to remain poor. But if they cared to look,
they'd see that the wealthy get far more benefits than do those with low
incomes. In 1978, when economist Joseph Pechman at the Brookings Institution
scoured the federal budget, he found that all programs for the poor totaled
$47 billion, while those for middle- and upper-income groups-mostly in the
form of tax write-offs-ballooned to $158 billion, more than three times
more.
Fast-forward to the present, and it's the same-old same-old. Bob McIntyre,
an economist and director of the Washington-based Citizens for Tax Justice,
found that in 2007, the bottom 60 percent of American households (with
incomes of less than $50,000) benefited from government programs to the tune
of $445 billion-no small sum by any arithmetic. Because recipients aren't
broken down by race, we can assume blacks get only part of that amount. But
at the same time a much smaller group-the top 20 percent, with incomes over
$85,000-got a striking $539 billion in tax breaks. Almost $100 billion more!
And the top 1 percent of American households-with incomes above $450,000-got
$298 billion, or tax savings of $210,000 each.
For the low-income groups, McIntyre tallied programs such as Medicaid (by
far the largest); food stamps; Supplemental Security Income (or SSI, for the
disabled); housing and home energy assistance; payments to states and local
governments for family support, fostercare and daycare; and children's
health insurance. For the well-off, he added up the two biggest
expenditures-property tax and mortgage interest deductions-along with
exemptions for interest on state and local bonds, reduced tax rates for
capital gains and dividends, tax credits and various breaks for corporations
and businesses. By allowing these tax breaks, the government basically
forgoes money it could collect.
McIntyre says Congress originally put tax breaks in the tax code because it
wanted Americans to buy things, such as houses, so it gave them a subsidy in
the form of tax savings. He also contends that tax write-offs aren't the
only way upper-income groups benefit. For example, government spending that
would appear to benefit all Americans, such as for highways, bridges, the
court system and airports, clearly helps some folks more than others.
"The fact that everyone uses something doesn't mean everyone uses it
equally," he explains. For example, the courts exist mainly to resolve
business or property disputes, and airports are used very little by those at
the bottom.
Given the increasing level of hyperbole, it seems that despite the evidence,
Tea Partyers will likely persist with their fairy tales, undaunted.
This brings us to the most famous tea party of all, where the Mad Hatter's
remark seemed to Alice "to have no sort of meaning in it." For both sets of
partyers, facts are irrelevant. To sort out the mayhem in Wonderland, Alice
insists she has "a right to think." To this, the Duchess replies, "Just
about as much right as pigs have to fly."
Dedicated to their dogma, which steers clear of details, today's Tea
Partyers may truly be the descendants of the Mad Hatter and March Hare, not
of the folks who dumped all that tea into the harbor.
Barbara Koeppel
***
From: Lila Garrett
CONNECT THE DOTS, Monday morning 7 to 8AM
Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Maxine Waters, The next Governor
The world, the nation, and the state Monday morning at 7
Tune into KPFK 90.7 or use this link:
http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/index.php?shokey=ctd
As we observe the 65th anniversary of United States dropping atom bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only two nuclear bombs ever used in war.
Determined that they be the last, Joseph Cirincione, President of
Ploughshares, joins us to discuss the New Start treaty, which seriously
scales back the number of nuclear weapons in the world. This begs the
question why should there be any?
First there was ACORN, then Shirlee Sherrod, then Charles Rangel, now
Congressperson Maxine Waters. Obviously the sick right wing feels it's time
to target African Americans in high places, especially if they're for the
poor, the powerless and worst of all, for peace. ACORN was destroyed by
bogus Republican charges. (Intimidated Democrats refused to stand up for
the group.) Sherrod proved her accusers wrong and forced them to apologize.
Rangel is pending, and Waters categorically denies any wrong doing. Our
question: How ethical is the Congressional Ethics Committee? MAXINE WATERS
joins us to discuss her response to their investigation.
And Michael Lighty, Political Dir of the powerful NursesUnion, calls the
Nov. election for a new governor "the most important in Ca. history". He
tells us in no uncertain terms what California will become if Meg Whitman
wins that election. Time to act!
Lila Garrett (Host of CONNECT THE DOTS)
KPFK 90.7 FM in LA; 98.7 Santa Barbara
Airs Mondays from 7AM to 8AM.
***
FREE FORUM with TERRENCE McNALLY
Sunday August 8th
Noon-1pm PT (3-4pm ET)
ANDREW BACEVICH
US Army, Colonel, Ret.(after 23 years)
who lost his son in Iraq
Author, THE LIMITS OF POWER:
The End of American Exceptionalism
and his newest,
WASHINGTON RULES:
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