Anti-tax protestors urged to, um, ride MARTA
April 15, 2009 at 3:53 pm by Andisheh Nouraee in News
Wave that flag: The Tea Party held on Feb. 27 brought hundreds to the state Capitol despite pouring rain.
If you’re heading downtown for tonight’s Tea Party festivities, the event’s organizers have a surprising suggestion for you:
Our first recommendation is that you park at one of the outer lying MARTA (itsmarta.com) train stations and ride the train to the 5 Points Station in Atlanta.
Because nothing says “I hate big government and taxes” louder than a taxpayer-funded government train ride.
Idiots.
More photos from February’s Tea Party here.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
April 15th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Because nothing says “I hate big government and taxes” louder than a taxpayer-funded government train ride.
Idiots.
AMEN, brother Nouraee. Amen.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
AHAHAHAHAH. I love it when they head northbound after a Braves, Thrashers or Hawks game and complain too. It’s like, the guys YOU elected won’t allow MARTA to improve or sustain itself, you ride it twice a MONTH and have the balls to complain? What about us in the city that use it daily?
April 15th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
actually, nothing says stupid better than completely missing the point of a protest.
it’s not about not wanting to pay taxes, it’s about how the government spends those taxes.
idiot.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I get the hypocrisy: Conservative Republicans were solely responsible for hamstringing MARTA in the Golddome, but now a conservative group is recommending MARTA to get to a mostly-Republican protest outside the Golddome.
Fact is, however, GA Republicans are no longer working in the traditional conservative mold. Traditional conservatives/Republicans would have no problem with projects like MARTA expansion- a localized project that is absolutely a public good. Such a conservative *would* have a problem with such solutions being proposed at the federal level.
Not that ya’ll at CL care about such distinctions. Conservatives = evil. I get that too.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Sorry Andisheh – I have to say that Amy nailed it.
I agree the local GOP may have been out of line to prevent MARTA from accessing their capital funds for short term shortages, but they were also sticking to the original law, which was intended to prevent them from continually coming forward for more money to finance capital improvements.
The “Tea Baggers” are protesting out-of-control Federal spending, not local spending.
Sad that you know that, but ignored it for a cutesy headline.
You are not an idiot. :-)
April 16th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Dale,
The intention might be what you have stated but most of the idiots down there were protesting taxes in general.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Excessive taxation and excessive spending go hand-in-hand.
The 50% of wage earners who actually pay Federal income tax are overtaxed.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I fail to see how supporting a transit system with their own dollars, by paying to ride MARTA, is somehow supporting Government funded transit. It’s exactly the opposite – putting their money literally where their mouth is and proving that if more people rode MARTA the government could get the hell out of the business of proping up transit systems.
Lookie there – if that happens then less taxes are required from EVERYONE.
But then, maybe they could spend it to prop up failed newspapers instead.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am
The protestors’ trip would have been subsidized whether or not they took MARTA. The Downtown Connector cost the equivalent of billions of dollars in today’s dollars.
Automobile travel is highly subsidized not just in the form of road construction and maintenance, but in the cost of police and ambulance service that deal with Georgia’s annual 3,000 highway deaths and over 100,000 injuries per year.
Road subsidies undermine the market for private mass transportation, the most cost-effective way to move around large numbers of people.
Road subsidies distort the real estate market and encourage sprawling homes and businesses that depend on cheap oil prices to survive.
In order to get back to the days when government did not “prop up transit systems” we would have to also go back to the days when the government did not “prop up” billion dollar highways.
Of course, that would take us back to an era when neither transit nor roads were very good. A time when a trip from North Fulton to the Capitol took all day.
Rather than taking this extreme approach we should do a better job of balancing our transportation investment between roads and transit, so that we get the best of both.
That means we all need to get involved more in our government and make sure our money is spent most effectively. At the same time, we need to act like adults and recognize that previous generations invested in our current quality of life and we have an obligation to do that for the next generation. Quality costs money.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Right On Lee! The best arguments are the ones that are facts, plain and simple!
April 16th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
They were not there to protest just taxes but also the Obama presidency. So many of the signs blasted him as if this was all his fault. Typical stupid conservatives. Doing the bidding of FOX News and blaming Obama for Bush’s out-of-control spending for 8 years.
And YES you morons… Federal tax dollars DO go to supplement local transit initiatives such as MARTA.
FOX LOVING IDIOTS.
May 6th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Yeah nadia, BUSH’s spending was out of control. Obama’s spending pales in comparison. Give me a break. Not that Bush was much of a fiscal conservative, but it’s a weak statement to say the least.
May 6th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Why wouldn’t they take taxpayer subsidized transportation? After all, they paid for it, whether they wanted to or not.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:03 am
As someone who grew up in Alpharetta, i can tell you the mindset of why they would not take Marta. “Because it’s gross and there are black people on it.” The funny thing is that most of the Johns Creek tax persecuted wealthy are from places that have good mass transit (the north and California). Its like they get here and suddenly become rich rednecks.
May 7th, 2009 at 2:39 am
I know I’m really late on this topic but… from what I understand Marta’s not federally funded by the income tax, and I’m pretty sure that’s what all of these Tea Party Goers are really against.
In fact, according to Wikipedia, MARTA is unique in that it is the largest United States transit agency not to receive state operational funding. The system is funded primarily by a 1% sales tax levied in its service area and passenger revenue.”