New at Reason: Steve Chapman on the Truth About the Tea Parties

April 20, 2009

The invocations of the Boston Tea Party—on April 15, no less—suggested that last week's Tea Party protests stemmed from anger about taxes under President Barack Obama. But Obama has not actually increased income taxes—only the federal tax on tobacco, which the majority of people don't pay. So why, writes Steve Chapman, did people rally across the country when they should have been planning how to spend their tax refunds? Because their true dismay is about the mushrooming of federal outlays, which the demonstrators regard as a future tax increase in the making. Which, of course, it is.

Read all about it here.