Tea Parties

This past Wednesday thousands upon thousands of Americans gathered at cities across the United States all in the name of fiscal responsibility. In Cincinnati, approximately 7,000 people crowded Fountain Square in protest of the government spending millions of dollars on federal stimulus projects. Fox News showed images of thousands outside the Alamo in Texas, the State Capitol of California in Sacramento, Atlanta, GA, Washington, D.C., and the list goes on and on. Picket line signs bared slogans such as “Taxed Too Much Already,” “Don’t Ruin Our Future,” “Give Me Liberty…Not Debt,” and “The United Socialist States of America.” Some were even dressed in colonial wigs with tea bags hanging from their glasses. As House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican would put it, “Across our nation, thousands of Americans are participating in taxpayer tea parties today for one simple reason: overtaxed families and small businesses have had enough.” And it all happened on April 15th, also known as Tax Day, a day that every American loathes to no end. The TEA, Taxed Enough Already, Parties were not organized by big Republican backers wishing to mudsling President Obama and his financial advisors. This was a grassroots movement against crazed government spending that threatens to destroy the lives of Americans not even born yet. And it was all rightly so. The big spending cannot be attributed to only the Republican or Democratic Party, both are at fault. The stimulus bill during the end of the Bush Administration was just the first toll that sparked much of the public outcry that has led to our government whipping out green bills at record pace. But, at least the Republican Party recognized the huge grass roots movement. Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, Mark Stanford, Governor of South Carolina, and Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, were all involved in Tea Parties in their respective states. Not surprisingly, the Obama White House failed to even make note of the events. The bottom line is that Americans have had enough. Often times, it takes this kind of political participation, unconventional participation, for government leaders to wake up and realize their mistakes.