NAACP: "Tea Party=Racism": A Racist smear of America?

Geia sou! O pappous mou enai apo Trikala. (I'm half Greek).

Pro and Con I'll give a hopefully sufficient enough answer. I think the Tea Party awakens people to the very real budgetary crisis that is facing the United States, but it leaves a path going forward unanswered. Future spending projections are quite severe, but most Americans in the coming years will be old citizens, who are going to expect to be relying on the state for financial support.

As is it outlined here-- note* for financial information, Bill Gross is a great source of info, and a leading bond expert. His analysis is probably the best of the markets- there are other analysts, but they tend to be wrong on a variety of predictions: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest... As you can see, this is quite unsustainable. The future obligations of the United States are actually several times larger than the entire economy of Europe... a very funny way to look at it.

The con however is that it hasn't spent enough time addressing what cuts will need to be taken care of. There is a heated ideological debate on this, but the rating agencies, economists, and others who are generally non-politically aligned have demanded a combination of entitlement cuts, military cuts, and tax increases. The problem with today's deficit in America is that it is going to grow-- the budget gap will continue to widen and this will grow the debt quickly.

Now with a downgrade, it will grow faster given the higher yields on bonds that might result. The Tea Party advances the idea that it should be all cuts, I believe, except the military is "off limits"... well, the reality is a quick cuts to entitlements will prove to be an economic nightmare. Many Americans are aging and in time, few workers will be paying into entitlements that increasing more people will need to rely on.

I keep mentioning this, but it is an incredibly important point. Already in the USA 45 million people rely on a program called "food stamps" because they have difficulty affording food-- there are other estimates that say social security and medicare keep tens of millions others out of poverty each year: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/b... Can you imagine it being this bad somewhere like Germany? Absolutely not!

In 2005, Switzerland reported its poverty rate was 4%. By the same standards, they said the US's rate was over 22%. Only 3% of Swiss needed to use a "welfare" program.

In the US, it's much, much higher. The US is heading down its own adjustment road like Greece did a few years ago, and it will not be pretty to watch. The problem however, is its programs that Gross mentioned are deeply entwined in the lives of many of its people.

And as the U6 survey has shown "real unemployment" in the USA is now near 16%. Why do you suppose young Greeks leaving now aren't going to the USA as much? They're going to the UK, to Australia, to the UAE, to Germany.

There is a relative of mine who wants to go to the US, but everyone in our family keeps doing whatever we can to send him to Germany instead. Germany is financially sound, it's unemployment is constantly falling now, and unlike the US, I am confident in its government. Summary: The Tea Party represents a very real concern, but the suggestion it should be all cuts and no tax adjustment means the burden will overwhelmingly fall on the aging Americans.

They are a pro and a con.

(I really like your avatar) I think it's good for America. Even if Obama were right in what he proposes to do and what he has done, it is always a good thing to have dissent. By and large the Tea Party has tried to restore Constitutional principles and has acted in good faith with all Americans. It's wise to remember that our nation became independent largely as a result of excessive taxation by rulers who didn't listen.

I am not one of those who believes the USA is past its prime, but if we are to continue to be a great country we will have to return to the principles on which this nation was founded. We should provide help to the poor, but that help should be designed to lift them out of poverty rather than sustaining them in it. By challenging a broken system, the Tea Party is the best hope for a restoration of America. And, Tea Party supporters are not all conservative, and not all Republican.

There are liberals and Democrats who totally agree with what the Tea Party wants to do.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.