Methinks They Don't Protest Enough

Here's a comment from QueensGuy.

By the by, anon. 1's comment that the left is "incredibly angered by anyone daring to complain that the government is spending us into oblivion while massively raising taxes at the same time." This is, I presume you're arguing, worse than spending us into oblivion while NOT raising taxes to pay for it? Is that the preferred course of the tea party crowd, or is it more akin to classic libertarianism?

Since no one answered, let me give the answers I've heard from people who support the protests.

First, of course, there were many people on the right (and left) who complained about Bush being a big government politician. Certainly libertarians did.

Second, and I think this is the main point, Obama is spending at a much higher rate than Bush. Bush's budget was an already sky-high $2.6 trillion, and Obama called him and raised him another trillion. The expected deficits, even using the Obama administration's rosy scenario, dwarf the Bush deficits, and will represent an unprecedented percentage of the GDP in modern times. There's no excuse for this sort spending even when things are flush, but you might expect during a deep recession, where the government can't afford the programs we do have, that the president might try to take it easy. Instead, Obama (claiming, mind you, this was good for the economy) created all new sorts of spending that will add more to the budget every single year from now on than the entire cost of the war in Iraq.

Third, that he'd also choose to massively raise taxes--something the protestors don't believe is fair or good for the economy (which apparently Obama agrees with since the idea behind the huge stimuls bill was to get more money back in the hands of the public)--just makes it worse.