Viewpoint-Tea Party movement spreads

By Frances Matteck/editor-in-chief

“No taxation without representation.”

This well-known phrase epitomizes why English colonists broke away from England and created a new sovereign nation in the American Revolution.

Today, officials elected to office speak for citizens. However, as evidenced through a recent grassroots movement, a portion of Americans do not believe their interests receive representation.

Reminiscent of colonial America, around 30,000 citizens Feb. 27 participated in rallies across the nation based on the Boston Tea Party.

“No taxation without deliberation” adorned a sign held by a stimulus protester at a Tea Party protest in Cleveland.

A rant by CNBC journalist Rick Santelli on the floor of the stock exchange incited the grassroots movement.

The nearly trillion-dollar stimulus bill was hurried through Congress despite a promise the public could view the bill 48 hours before it went to a vote. Members of Congress didn’t even have two days to read through it.

The bill is more than 1,000 pages long, and its final language was posted online around 11 p.m., 10 hours before the scheduled vote. That’s not enough time for anyone to get through that behemoth and give serious consideration to what it entails and its consequences.

Timothy P. Carney, columnist for The Washington Examiner, totaled the cost of Obama’s domestic spending proposals including the stimulus, the second Wall Street bailout, the mortgage bailout and his proposed 2010 fiscal budget among others. Grand total? $7,371,000,000,000. 

That’s a lot of zeroes.

And now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants to give $900 million to Palestine to rebuild the Gaza Strip.

So the government uses our fear of a second depression to ram the stimulus and bailout after bailout through Congress, and then it wants to give our money away to rebuild an area that is still ravaged by rockets on a regular basis?

That is offensive.

Apparently, other Americans agree.

A second round of rallies protesting the government’s fiscal strategy is scheduled for April 15, the last day to file taxes.

If you’re interested in participating in the “Tax Day Tea Party,” go to www.taxdayteaparty.com.

The Web site already has information posted on a rally in Dallas. Hope to see you there.