Area taxpayers join tea party - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | Fostoria Review Times

Local News

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Area taxpayers join tea party

By JOY BROWN

for the review times

Tea'd off about taxes, local protests are planning "TEA parties," minus the crumpets and fine china, today. One is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. in front of the courthouse in downtown Tiffin, one from 3 to 5 p.m. in front of the U.S. Post Office at 229 W. Main Cross St. in Findlay and another at noon in front of the village office in Republic.

In Tiffin, the participants will dump some "tea" in the river, in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party, the 1773 event which protested British taxation on tea and inspired the theme for this protest. The liquid being dumped will not harm the river.

The Tiffin and Republic events are sponsored by the North Central Conservatives of Seneca County, a nonpartisan group that supports conservative values.

The event on federal tax filing day is part of a nationwide "Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party" movement against government taxation and spending.

National organizers on the Web site www.taxdayteaparty.com are labeling this a "grassroots" effort that is being "fueled by angst and rage arising from a feeling of helplessness at the realization that the people have lost control of their government."

"The whole idea is like 9-12, the day after 9-11, when the people kind of rallied around each other for support," said Steve McMaster, one of the Findlay organizers. He also had a small tax protest at the Findlay post office on tax filing day in 2008.

McMaster said the idea for the Findlay protest also stemmed from some members of the Young Republicans group watching a program hosted by conservative personality Glenn Beck in which he urged people to gather in their homes to discuss recent federal government actions.

"For this event, we'll be focused on taxation, that basically we are born free but we're taxed to death," said McMaster. "We're protesting the federal income tax ...

"People wonder how we would fund the government" without income tax collections, McMaster said. "We did it for 100-some years, before 1913 ... Decreasing spending is how you'd get by that.

"We'll also be protesting spending in terms of the massive bailouts that are going on; the financial structure with the way it's set up with derivatives; the Chinese owning most of our 30-year bonds, which are really going to come back to haunt us; the unprecedented printing of money that's going to cause high inflation and very likely hyper inflation."

Much of the information to be handed out Wednesday will come from the Web site www.truthattack.org, McMaster said.

According to McMaster, the event will be "completely nonpartisan. I'm a registered Republican, but I was a (Republican presidential candidate) Ron Paul aide," he said.

McMaster said each city that is hosting a tea party will have a unique event.

Additional reporting by features writer Mariah Mercer

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Fostoria Review Times

Local News

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

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