While some say the Tea Party stands for “Taxed Enough Already,” most Tea Party supporters – 52 percent – say their taxes are fair, the poll shows. Just under one in five Americans say they support the Tea Party movement.
However, those most active in the Tea Party are less satisfied with the amount of income taxes they will pay. Fifty-five percent of Tea Party activists – those who have attended a rally or donated money – (about 4 percent of Americans overall) say their income taxes are unfair.
Americans overall are more likely than Tea Partiers to describe the income taxes they’ll pay this year as fair – 62 percent do, according to the poll, conducted April 5 – 12.
Majorities across all income levels say their income taxes are fair, as do most Republicans and Democrats.
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,580 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone April 5-12, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus two percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
An oversample of people who describe themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement were interviewed, for a total of 881 interviews. The results were then weighted in proportion to the adult population. The margin of error for the sample of Tea Party supporters is three points.
According to a new CBS News/ New York Times poll.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
“Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated
The Tea Party movement burst onto the scene a year ago in protest of the economic stimulus package, and its supporters have vowed to purge the Republican Party of officials they consider not sufficiently conservative and to block the Democratic agenda on the economy, the environment and health care. But the demographics and attitudes of those in the movement have been known largely anecdotally. The Times/CBS poll offers a detailed look at the profile and attitudes of those supporters.
Tea Party supporters’ fierce animosity toward Washington, and the president in particular, is rooted in deep pessimism about the direction of the country and the conviction that the policies of the Obama administration are disproportionately directed at helping the poor rather than the middle class or the rich.
The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.”
Continue —
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html
Tea Party Activists are 4% of the population? I wonder what the percentage of reporting each day is devoted to the rantings of 4% of the population.
I’m wondering: I’ve the wealthy/educated thing but, having seen the, frankly, idiots who show up on camera, one wonders:
1) Are they basically Dan Quayles: Folks are fairly low intelligence, but with the $$, connections, and drive to work the system-even graduating from an Ivy League School (Yale)?
2) Or is it the backers, the Dick Armeys etc., the ones who pony up the dough to make it all happen non-stop on Fox News?
3) Perhaps some combo of both?
The poll makes a little more sense, I think, if 2) is more true. If you’re not wealthy–or really poor–you’re more likely to think your taxes are fair.
But a lot of the same TEA folks I suspect are simply the standard chumps for the Wrecking Crew, who haven’t yet learned their lesson.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002548-503544.html
From Forbes, written by courageously consistent fiscal conservative economist Bruce Bartlett —
The Misinformed Tea Party Movement
“No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama’s policies.” In fact, as Bartlett attests, “federal taxes are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president.”
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/18/tea-party-ignorant-taxes-opinions-columnists-bruce-bartlett.html
When I hear some grandparents in the Tea Party rant and scream against Obama and his big spending and all that debt he is leaving our children and grandchildren, I just want to scream back…
then Grandma needs to tell Medicare to stop paying for Grandpa’s Viagra pills.
I just wonder how many millkions is wasted on that one particular miracle drug?
…and yet? They deny climate change. They dont give a rat’s patootie about the planet they leave their grandchildren. But the tax bill? Oh yeah. They care. Hell, with no planet, no taxes. Maybe that is their plan?
Jesus wept…
Seriously, folks. No body likes paying taxes but if we want to live in a civilized society, then everyone needs to pay their taxes.
But I do have a problem with people who know how to abuse the tax system. I do not like the single parents who refuse to get married because they will lose that earned income credit that can be worth thousands when there are multiple children involved. What really makes me angry is that I know these couples live together as being married – but because they are not legally married – one of them (usually the woman) qualifies for that big tax refund check.
But I also do not like the corporate welfare and subsidies going to people that do not need the tax breaks.
I wish there was a fair tax system but that is where politics come into play and whose lobbyists will win out in the final tax system?
Todd Tiahrt won Tea Party Express endorsements!
But, but the Tea Party is an independent, non-partisan group that just wants all incumbents voted out…
or do they?
Their hypocrisy has been showing for a long, long time.
Of course this is the Tea Party Express group we are talking about – correct?
Is this is the group led by Dick Armey that hijacked the original Tea Party?
I think even Dan Quayle got it right about the Tea Party.
Mr. Potatoe Head said that the GOP cannot afford to allow the Tea Party to break away from the party because that would split the votes between those two groups and Democrats will win by simply by majority votes.
But on the other side of that double-edged sword is the fact that the GOP is now hog-tied to the Tea Party and whatever crazy antics the Tea Partiers do – the GOP will get the blame.
Kinda like the same way Reagan started the GOP using the Religious Right to get more voters into the voting booth but then not expecting alot of those RR’s to be so darn crazy in their beliefs – ie Pat Robertson and his ever so wise comments about needed foreign leader assassinations, Haiti making a pact with the Devil and my personal favorite – telling his supporters to pray that certain Supreme Court Justices die from heart attacks.
Wow – can’t you just feel the love?