Barack Obama’s Marie Antoinette Moment

The media and the Administration seem to have settled on their theme for the April 15^th, 2010 Tea Parties: bewildered amusement.  On Tax Day 2009, the media and Obama ignored the Tea Party, but for the snickering “tea bagger” comments from the press.  In September they played the race card and spoke of the angry, ignorant crowds.  As the healthcare shenanigans inspired more tea parties, Nancy Pelosi even tried crocodile tears.  As of yet, none of these tactics have worked stall the grassroots momentum of conservative Mainstreet America.

So what is next?  For Obama, the 2010 reaction to the Tea Parties is: let them eat cake.   One sign of progress for the President is that he mentioned the movement immediately, if not publicly.  In 2009, it took weeks for Mr. Obama to arrogantly ridicule Americans.  Now he is apt to do it a little sooner.  Reports quote Obama as saying he was amused by the Tea Parties.  He commented that Americans should “thank” him for cutting taxes.

And that is his Marie Antoinette moment.  Gee, Mr. President, the people seem to be upset.  They are concerned with the hockey stick spending chart you have adopted.  They believe the government is growing and that government growth will reduce liberties.  They believe that your have navigated our tax-and-spend Congress into dangerous waters where the economy is becoming unsustainable.  What was that, Mr. President?  You cut taxes on workers by $2-6 per month?  Let me go ask them why they don’t thank you.

President Obama presided over a $70 billion tax cut, tied to a $787 billion spending bill.  The government spent $11 for every $1 in tax savings to Americans.  Unemployment went up, foreclosures went up, and the confidence in Washington and the President went down.  For some in the media to pretend that there are no reasons for anger is disheartening; for the President to believe that he deserves gratitude is embarrassing.

It was not a tax cut, but rather a loan extension.  It was the slick marketing move of a credit card company that offers a low introductory rate to rope those that don’t read the fine print into ever increasing debt.  The Tea Partiers read the fine print.  It is not about tax cuts.   It is about big spending and Big Government.  Obama cut taxes, yes, and the British in their day repealed the Stamp Act.  Neither of theses two actions had an effect on the root of the problem.  Either the President and the MSNBC crowd are as naive as Marie Antoinette, or they are as dishonest as, well, a Washington politician.