Senator Kerry = Benedict Arnold?

Senator John Kerry (D-MA), who in the past has denounced companies that seek to minimize their corporate tax bills, has apparently done some soul-searching and determined that he too doesn't wish to overpay his own taxes.

"Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?"

Of course, no one should begrudge another person the opportunity to arrange his affairs in order to lawfully and legally minimize his own tax obligations.

However, Senator Kerry has a long history of publicly excoriating companies who try to do the same. His prior histrionics though were likely only for political gain, as his supporters and voters in Massachusetts expected him to act in that manner.

When it comes time to spend his own money however, Senator Kerry is just like the rest of us, probably more so than he'd care to admit.

Senator Kerry: Tea Partiers are Hypocrites

In a nonesensical statement by a man who has made a career out of the same, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) recently remarked that Americans that are angry at Washington are being hypocritical.

"But he said that the D.C.-directed attacks are hypocritical, since many of those attacking Washington spending presumably want to keep their Social Security and Medicare and want Washington to play a big role in the Gulf Oil cleanup. "There's a huge contradiction on a daily basis," he said."

So because Tea Partiers believe that politicians in Washington are overspending in a multitude of areas, it's hypocritical for some of them to support any type of spending that is undertaken from Washington?

I think the essential issue here is that Mr. Kerry does not understand the Tea Party, does not understand why it has sprung into existence and does not understand the issues that its supporters believe are important.

Many Tea Partiers (myself included) would support making Social Security and Medicare contributions voluntary and not mandatory (of course, that would mean we were not able to receive those benefits either, to the extent we did not "contribute"). Any many Tea Partiers believe that regulators in Washington or at the state level in Louisiana should oversee the clean-up efforts being undertaken by BP (which at least has access to cutting edge technology, and is not bogged down in red tape like government bureaucrats would be) but not play a "big role" (which in his definition presumably means taking over the clean-up process).

The fact is, Senator Kerry and the Democrats ignore and mock the Tea Party at their own peril, and risk a devastating defeat in November.

As for why the Tea Party has just now come to life, it was one thing for the overspending to be approved by previous Administrations (i.e., Reagan, Bush 2) that were pro-growth and kept taxes somewhat low, which created the hope that once we got spending under control we could grow our way out of the mess. It's quite another for the Obama Administration to overspend, have no pro-growth policies and talk of massive tax hikes (e.g., repeal of Bush tax cuts, European-style VAT, etc.) as a means to fulfill their statist agenda.