TEA-d off

July 7, 2010: It was George Will who wrote months ago that angry populist movements have historically failed because they lack real ideas.

The emergence of the Tea Party movement over the last few years has been fueled by fear and misinformation by supporters and opponents alike. No matter what anybody says, in the end we'll give more to government and get less for our contribution. 

Yes, the nation's debt is out of control and nationwide 9.5 people out of 100 can't find work and an even larger percentage has simply given up looking. Yes, major pieces of legislation like health care reform, cap and trade and the United States current strategy in Afghanistan are causing uncertainty.

But no, these public policy issues won't be solved by cheerleaders who shout messages that fit the crowd instead of the cash flow.

A few weeks ago, former Alaska Governor and now social networking diva Sarah Palin, endorsed Joe Miller in the GOP Primary for an Alaska U.S. Senate seat against Lisa Murkowski.

Palin had given $5,000 to the incumbent just twelve months ago, but said that Murkowski had become one of the big spenders, even though her Senate voting record defies that description. 

"Unfortunately, Lisa Murkowski and much of the political establishment have recently evolved into being a bigger part of the big government problem in Washington, and they’ve strayed from the principles upon which they had espoused," Palin wrote on her Facebook page endorsing Miller's candidacy.

As I've written before, this whole exercise has nothing to do with the actual election, but has everything to do with Palin embracing a growing base of the GOP and throwing them some red meat named Joe Miller.

The Tea Party mantra, and a common theme echoed by both Palin and Miller is that federal government spending is too high and needs to be cut.

However last week, Palin took President Barack Obama to task for trying to reduce the rate of growth in the country's defense budget. This year the U.S. will spend $680 billion on military operations plus an additional $30 billion for the war in Afghanistan. 

Palin pointed out the administration had asked Congress to cut spending on defense programs they say are unnecessary, like an extra engine for the F-35 joint strike force fighter jet. She also points out that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was first appointed by President Bush, has talked about decreasing the number of ships in the Navy. "We should not be cutting corners on our national security," Palin wrote on facebook.

So here's the question:

The country is broke.

The nation's debt is over $13 trillion.

And over 65% of what the country spends is on three areas; Social Security, Medicare and the Defense Budget.

So if Palin wants Obama to spend more money on Defense, how much comes from Social Security and Medicare?

Just look at the protesters in the picture above; do you think they want their Social Security reduced or their Medicare cut?

In fact if you look at most Tea Party pictures the demographics appear to be the same. Yep. In a year that marks the beginning of the baby boom retirement explosion and the increased demands on Social Security and Medicare.

Today's growing public reliance on government entitlements is what Alexis de Tocqueville, writer of all things America, warned of back in the 19th century. "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money" he wrote. Today we are living the dream.

For far too long Americans have been led to believe that Milton Friedman was an idiot when he warned about there being no such thing as a free lunch. It's all gimmicks, it's all fuzzy math and it all adds up to why this country is the largest debtor country in the world.

So when Sarah Palin or anyone else stands before you and says government needs to provide more military troops, more planes and more ships without significantly raising taxes or accumulating more debt, they are being dishonest.  

Meanwhile the faithful continue to protest that they are taxed enough already and current debt is unsustainable.

 

I'd be Tea-d off too.