It's too late now to correct, but Obama promised transparency for his administration as pointed out in Campbell Brown's article at CNN.
The promise Obama made to Americans was to post any non-emergency bill on the White House website to review and comment with American citizens contributing their input. First off, Obama signs the Ledbetter bill, and even though a good bill, it would have been perfectly fine to let Americans give their comments and concerns. Brown also points out this campaign promise Obama stressed, is still on his website.
Yet, the big problem for transparency was the bonus stipulation entered into the Stimulus bill,resulting in the terrifying tax bill fall out for the American taxpayer. No one got 5 days to review anything. There literally was not enough time. If you think back about the the rush to push this bill, it makes less sense the more time goes by. Call it Citizen Shock. For congressional review, Fannie and Freddie got 19 hrs.
So Americans get angrier the more new information is leaked about AIG. Due to this anger, "Tea Parties" are organizing around the country with a planned date in most cities for April 15. Tea Party, it does sound familiar. Why are so many upset citizens responding to the notices of these protests? Doesn't it concern a government where everyday citizens are wanting to hit the streets in protest?
Taking a look back at our colonial ancestors,we can go to the year 1773 where we get an explanation for the first tax rebellion shortly before the Revolutionary War: "The East India Company's decision to grant franchises to certain American merchants for the sale of their tea created further resentments among those excluded from this lucrative trade. More important, however, the Tea Act revived American passions about the issue of taxation without representation."
Americans by nature do not like taxes. This is evidenced by our own politicians who seem to consider paying any taxes an inconvenience. Yet, the average American who is burdened with tax doesn't respond well to having his load increased by politicians who can't seem to pay their share to begin with. The corporate greed coupled with political corruption leads to today's outrage. What would our ancestors say? Plenty, you can bet.
So for those who participate, we having encouraging news from Glenn Reynolds at "The Christian Science Monitor" who covered this topic by re-producing the passage below:
some thoughts from human-rights blogger Robert Mayer:
I just want to offer you and the tea party protesters some words of encouragement. As someone who has studied (and blogged) protest as an act of democratic revolution and people power in the post-Soviet area, I know a lot about the dynamics of mass civil society unrest, government transition, etc…
What we are seeing now is truly huge POTENTIAL for massive civil unrest against the American government gone lunatic with spending. Realistically, 400-1000 people at a protest, even at a dozen protests across the country, will do nothing to change the minds of our idiot leaders.
However, it creates the POTENTIAL that each protest could have a million. The Orange Revolution in Ukraine did not start out with two million people camping in tents in downtown Kiev. It started with only a few hundred diehard activists.
