Hundreds of tea parties have been scheduled in cities and towns across the country. People are fed-up with increasing government intervention in and control of our everyday lives. Health care is no exception. Americans are displeased with the health care reform bills that both Democrat-led houses of the U.S. Congress are trying to ram down the public’s throat [Article - 1.Tea Party protests today over health care proposals | 2. Health Care and the Tea Parties | 3. Doctors Join Patients to Protest at Health Care Freedom Tea Parties July 17; Thousands Join in Nationwide Event | 4. Tea Party activists protest Obama health plan, government spending].
In a blatant effort to bypass consideration of and congressional debate over the proposed legislation, leftist Democrats and unfortunately a handful of Republicans are hurriedly trying to slip health care reform legislation past the American people and get it to President Obama’s desk for signature. This is a travesty and utter disregard of the Democratic process.
Opponents of the tea parties view participants as anti-government, anti-tax, anti-Democratic troublemakers and a disorganized mob who find something to complain about. They claim that the very premise of today’s tea parties runs counter to the Boston Tea Party, which was solely about taxes. They are partly right about the Boston Tea Party, but wrong about everything else. Higher taxes resulted in loss of freedom and liberty. Higher taxes meant greater oppression. Elitists today are making the same presumptions and mistakes that elitists made before the Revolutionary War [Article - 1. ABC, CBS and NBC Try to Discredit 'Tea Party' Protests | 2. Obama to 'tea-bag' protesters: I've already cut taxes]. When one subscribes to revisionist history, as leftists often do, one often has a distorted view of what he or she perceives to be the facts. Here’s a brief summary of what led up to the Boston Tea Party, culminating with the actual event itself (taken from the Website EyeWitness to History.com):
The Boston Tea Party, 1773
Victory in the French and Indian War was costly for the British. At the war’s conclusion in 1763, King George III and his government looked to taxing the American colonies as a way of recouping their war costs. They were also looking for ways to reestablish control over the colonial governments that had become increasingly independent while the Crown was distracted by the war. Royal ineptitude compounded the problem. A series of actions including the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Acts (1767) and the Boston Massacre (1770) agitated the colonists, straining relations with the mother country. But it was the Crown’s attempt to tax tea that spurred the colonists to action and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution.
The colonies refused to pay the levies required by the Townsend Acts claiming they had no obligation to pay taxes imposed by a Parliament in which they had no representation. In response, Parliament retracted the taxes with the exception of a duty on tea – a demonstration of Parliament’s ability and right to tax the colonies. In May of 1773 Parliament concocted a clever plan. They gave the struggling East India Company a monopoly on the importation of tea to America. Additionally, Parliament reduced the duty the colonies would have to pay for the imported tea. The Americans would now get their tea at a cheaper price than ever before. However, if the colonies paid the duty tax on the imported tea they would be acknowledging Parliament’s right to tax them. Tea was a staple of colonial life – it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.
The colonists were not fooled by Parliament’s ploy. When the East India Company sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York the ships were not allowed to land. In Charleston the tea-laden ships were permitted to dock but their cargo was consigned to a warehouse where it remained for three years until it was sold by patriots in order to help finance the revolution.
In Boston, the arrival of three tea ships ignited a furious reaction. The crisis came to a head on December 16, 1773 when as many as 7,000 agitated locals milled about the wharf where the ships were docked. A mass meeting at the Old South Meeting House that morning resolved that the tea ships should leave the harbor without payment of any duty. A committee was selected to take this message to the Customs House to force release of the ships out of the harbor. The Collector of Customs refused to allow the ships to leave without payment of the duty. Stalemate. The committee reported back to the mass meeting and a howl erupted from the meeting hall. It was now early evening and a group of about 200 men, some disguised as Indians, assembled on a near-by hill. Whopping war chants, the crowd marched two-by-two to the wharf, descended upon the three ships and dumped their offending cargos of tea into the harbor waters.
Courtesy of Boston Tea Party Historical Society
Most colonists applauded the action while the reaction in London was swift and vehement. In March 1774 Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts which among other measures closed the Port of Boston. The fuse that led directly to the explosion of American independence was lit.
Let us concentrate on this one sentence: “Tea was a staple of colonial life – it was assumed that the colonists would rather pay the tax than deny themselves the pleasure of a cup of tea.” The sentence could very well be worded: “Affordable health care was the dream of every American – it was assumed that the American citizenry would rather pay higher taxes than deny themselves the affordable quality health care they desired.” The same wordsmithery could be applied to the proposed “climate change” bill as well.
This is an issue that crosses party lines. This is an issue that crosses ideological lines. Americans are being taxed into oblivion by out-of-touch, tax and spend career politicians. They are through with empty speeches and broken promises. That is why the tea parties exist and that is why they will get larger and more widespread until they can no longer be ignored.
SIGN THE PETITION FREE OUR HEALTH CARE NOW
PHYSICIANS: MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD AT TAKEBACKMEDICINE.COM
Information on tea parties:
