I imagine most of them probably paid their taxes. Right after they polished their guns and considered assassinating Obama for their own delusional reasons.

Glen Beck was the only person who actually made a semi-logical point for these "protests": the tax code is too complex and people don't understand it. But I think 99% of the people were there for other reasons.

This is what America is like people. I wonder if people are this easily lead to delusion in other countries, too.

This is what America is like, people.

It's a minority of Americans with unfocused anger. Mostly, I see that these people are unknowingly projecting their anger onto the wrong targets. I'm glad it didn't turn into anything violent.

I don't get it. The tea tax was repealed with the Taxation of Colonies Act of 1778.

The whole thing is misplaced. In this case it's anger and fear shrouded as patriotism. Similar references include "what our founding fathers wanted!" and "Lincoln stood for liberty, you can't take that away from us!"

They also say TEA stands for Taxed Enough Already as they go around protesting taxes. One of their arguments is "Obama wants to raise our taxes even more!" even though they'll be paying less under his plan. I also saw a clip of a guy angry at Obama, calling him a "fascist". The reporter asked "how is he a fascist?" and the guy could only respond with "because he is! He's a fascist!"

Hey Bob, you're in Texas. You're probably seeing some of the most of it. Your Governor implied Texas was could secede.

Unless you're a defense contractor or a bank, you're already paying more in taxes. Taxes aren't just the nominal amount taken from your paycheck or the additional small amount you pay when you buy things.

It's not very well understood theoretically, but measurements show that Ricardian Equivalence is largely true over the long term.

It can't. Texas could have split itself into 5 independent states, and those states could have decided to not join the Union. However, that agreement was:
a) only valid before the Civil War. A new agreement had to be remade when Texas rejoined the Union.
b) still needs to be aproved by the US Congress anyway. See US Constitution Article IV section 3.

According to the CNN article, it was a protest against bailing out failing companies, and I have not heard many people who are actually in favor of that. (Granted, I don't read this forum often...) I know that I wouldn't invest in a company that couldn't manage itself.

Why are you (the handful that have posted in such a manner) reacting negatively to people letting their voice be heard? It's better than people sitting around saying, "oh nobody will ever listen to me." The government is for all the people, not just the snobs who think they're better than everyone else.

You got away with that?

Well, I don't have to pay taxes either, I still file them though. I was referring to Jonny's post, which makes it sound like he didn't even file.

Eh, might want to rethink this strategy:

Joe Banister
"The former investigator, Joseph R. Banister, 42, of San Jose, Calif., has become a hero to the tax protest movement, even though two of his clients are serving long prison sentences after following his advice."

Freedom Fighter #1!

Sounds like the only martyrs here are the guys clients. No offense, but it would be safer to just claim aliens abducted you.

EDIT: Oh yeah, those taxes are also paying for social security, infrastructure, education and more.

You are incredibly ignorant to believe anybody who claims that you do not have to pay income tax. Laughably ignorant.

You can to jail for it, among other things. How is that not proof enough? Gangster Al Capone went to prison for ... income tax invasion!

You can sincerely believe in your heart that the IRS has no right to collect taxes, but that won't hold up in any court. And that's ultimately where your fate lies; not in hands of some conspiracy theorist.

Really? I think you fail at conditional probabilities.

You all are just mad Jonny figured out you don't actually have to pay taxes while you all have been stupidly paying them this whole time!