2009 Tea Parties

[SuperJerk]

Chants like "Give me liberty, not debt" and "Our kids can't afford you" were heard across several U.S. cities Wednesday as anti-tax "tea party" protesters took to the streets to voice their opposition to big government spending.

 

Thousands of protesters -- some dressed in colonial wigs with tea bags hanging from their eyeglasses -- showed up in states from California to Kentucky to Massachusetts, holding signs and reading speeches lambasting the Obama administration's tax-and-spend policies.

 

"I have two little kids and I know we are mortgaging their futures away," one protester at a rally in Austin, Texas told FOX News. "It makes me sick to my stomach."

 

The demonstrations are part of a larger grassroots movement against government spending called Taxed Enough Already, or TEA -- giving name to the Tax Day Tea Parties -- and come more than 235 years after the original Boston Tea Party revolt against taxes.

 

Protesters gathered in cities across the country.

 

Shouts rang out from Kentucky, which just passed tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol, to Salt Lake City, where many in the crowd booed Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman for accepting about $1.5 billion in stimulus money. Even in Alaska, where there is no statewide income tax or sales tax, hundreds of people held signs and chanted "No more spending."

 

"Frankly, I'm mad as hell," said businessman Doug Burnett at a rally at the Iowa Capitol, where many of the about 1,000 people wore red shirts declaring "revolution is brewing." Burnett added: "This country has been on a spending spree for decades, a spending spree we can't afford."

 

In Boston, a few hundred protesters gathered on the Boston Common -- a short distance from the original Tea Party -- some dressed in Revolutionary garb and carrying signs that said "Barney Frank, Bernie Madoff: And the Difference Is?" and "D.C.: District of Communism."

 

Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up a tea party at Austin City Hall with his stance against the federal government, as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"

 

But unlike many events around the country, politicians were not allowed to speak at a separate rally in San Antonio.

 

"They are welcome to come and listen to us, for a change," organizers said in a statement.

 

Meanwhile, Obama seized the opportunity to defend his tax policy Wednesday, saying, "Make no mistake: this tax cut will reach 120 million families and put $120 billion directly into their pockets, and it includes the most American workers ever to get a tax cut. This will boost demand, and save or create over half a million jobs."

 

"I know that April 15 isn't exactly everyone's favorite date on the calendar. But it is an important opportunity for those of us in Washington to consider our responsibility to the people who sent us here and who pay the bills," he said.

 

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs also defended the president's promise to cut taxes.

 

"If anybody involved looks at the facts, they'll find out that this president promised and this president delivered on putting more money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans, cut their taxes, made it more affordable to buy a home, made it more affordable to send their kids to go to college, provided tax incentives for businesses to create jobs through things like clean energy," Gibbs told reporters during an afternoon press conference.

 

"I'll let the organizers of whatever these are speak to their motivations," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15...tests-expected/

 

This report from Fox News states it is anti-tax, but other reports suggest it was anti-stimulus, anti-bailout, or anti-Obama.

 

I have not found an exact number yet, but the closest thing I've found (and its unverified) is over a quarter-million people showed up for these on Tuesday.

[Nightwing]

This is pretty obvious it's just a ploy, and I don't think many people are buying it. It doesn't help them that most of their message and signs are the same stuff we saw during the election, and not actually concentrating on the taxing. I don't think anyone really cares, either; the right is, rather sadly, turning themselves into a regional party.

[Live Free or Battlenuts]

It's wonderful to see protesters using talking points. What a silly country this is.

[SamoaRowe]

That's what an (un)healthy diet of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh will do for your imagination.

[Swindle]

Ha! I'm the only one who voted the first way...

 

I'd rather watch ESPN and I'm not big on protesting as a rule. I do think it is valid, I just don't want to watch it. I just can't get into the retro clothing and silly signs. I just don't enjoy watching this kind of stuff and I certainly wouldn't go out to an event. The massive spending, bailouts, endless debt, printing up money out of no where, it all concerns me, but Obama was elected with huge Democractic majorities. Its what people want right now. ho hum.

 

 

[Live Free or Battlenuts]

The old man who works on my deli put it wonderfully this morning...

 

"You know who's doing all the complaining? The people who can afford to take a day off. Fuck them."

 

The old are wise.

[SuperJerk]

I can't argue with that logic.

[ZGangsta]

A bunch of middle/lower class people protesting the government raising (well actually rolling back) the taxes on the top 1% of earners from 36% to 39% while they themselves get a tax REDUCTION. How pathetic.

 

Just goes to show what letting a group of rich people from Fox News tell you what to do can accomplish.

[SuperJerk]

Here's what I've kind of been thinking about the protest...

 

A lot of the people in the crowd were obviously misinformed about a lot of things. And there were also, like at EVERY protest march (no matter what the issue), a lot of lunacy. Somewhere in there, there was probably a small contingent of well-informed people with a legitimate point to make. These are people who might be aware that Obama isn't planning any major tax increases now, the effects of deficit spending from both the Bush bail-out and his stimulus package will add a substantial amount to the national debt. And these people are worried about what effect that debt will have on future generations of tax-payers, long term effects deficit spending might have on the economy, and are concerned that an unplanned tax increase may become necessary very soon. This group of people were not represented at all by the conspiracy-theorists and office-holding demagogues that we saw on TV, or the inflammatory rhetoric of the yellow journalists at Fox News.

[Live Free or Battlenuts]

Yet the republican's offered the most ridiculous counter plan ever heard of. If those people were so concerned they should of been voting for a smarter party the last 8-12 years. The people who may have a legitimate gripe are led by people who simply don't have any better idea's and now that they're in the minority they can suffer the idiots they put into office going along with a retard dog and pony show complete with Hilter/Obama references.

 

If they're that concerned with the future, spend more time with your kids and less time making signs.

[SuperJerk]

Though its not much of a secret the times either party is most concerned with the deficit is when they are out of power, there are people out there who genuinely believe that Obama has doubled the national debt in the 2 months he's been president because of the blizzard of out-of-context numbers thrown at them by Hannity, Limbaugh, et. al. I remember Bill Clinton shutting a lot of people up when, as a president in his first term, told everyone the budget would already be balanced if they didn't have to pay interest on the debt run up under Reagan and Bush. Obama might want to use a similar line.

 

 

Here's an article about the Tea Parties that explains the rationale behind them quite reasonably.

Edited April 19, 2009 by SuperJerk