I like tea too, but i don't think they want me at the party

Oh those tea party people. I find them fascinating. Just read and interesting article in NYT about the demographics of the tea party.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html

I find myself agreeing with many of the general premisses of the tea party. I would love a smaller government. I think the best days of the country are behind us. I think that the federal government should stay out of my bedroom (aka social issues). However, where I think these people have a fundamental misunderstanding is about the roll of the government today as compared to what they define as the good old days. The following is a basic analysis of the economic history of the country's past 90 years.

President Roosevelt's' New Deal created limitations on the power of banks and corporations to defraud the American people. The Great Depression was caused by predatory lending practices and corporate fraud on Wall Street just as today's depression. The New Deal stopped these practices, provided a safety net for the poorest and oldest Americans with Social Security and Medicaid. The New Deal also provided assistance to the institutions that made the United States the strongest and most economically secure country in the history of the World. Money was funneled into the school system, kids were given a decent public education; the brightest students were give a chance to go to college, housing loans were provided at fair interest rates to working people, university were endowed to do scientific research that created medical miracles we live with today. For the next 40 years there was an unheard of economic boom in this country.

At the end of the 1970s we experienced an energy crisis. This caused the economy to hiccup. Up rose the "hero" Ronald Reagan. He cut regulations and gave money to the wealthiest Americans. He cut taxes dramatically for the very wealthiest of Americans and ran a deficit. His plan was give the money to the wealthy and then the wealth will trickle down. Well that didn't happen. In the last thirty years the gap between the wealthy and the working classes has grown and the good jobs, educational opportunities, and home owning chances flew the coop. Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama have not changed these policies. It is these policies that have created the conditions for our current economic depression, huge deficit, and lack of job prospects.

Whatever your political ideology, we all want a better more secure America. Roosevelt showed us how to accomplish this goal. Lean our history. Maybe we can discus this more over tea.