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| ''St. Louis Tea Party'' - Large Group Protests Stimulus Plan |
| 2009-02-28 |
| (KTVI - FOX2now.com) - Angry taxpayers re-enacted the Boston Tea Party on the banks of the Mississippi River Friday in downtown St. Louis. Their message: Congress is taxing future generations for today's economic mess. The protesters tossed loose tea into the muddy water cheering as the wind blew it away from the levee. The stimulus bill, the bailout plans and proposed tax hikes drew the ire of demonstrators who describe themselves as fiscal conservatives and not necessarily Republicans. A crowd of some 400 people stood on the steps of the Gateway Arch as speakers criticized Congress for rushing approval of the nearly eight billion dollar economic relief package. One of the rally's organizers, conservative blogger Bill Hennessy of Ballwin said, "We're trying to preserve the Republic and you can't do that when you're borrowing trillions of dollars every week from China." Pam Grow of Rolla fears government has become too large. "I have four children ages 14 through 28 and I'm concerned that my children and their children will never dig their way out from underneath this enormous spending," she said. A former aide to Senator Jim Talent, Shamed Dogan of Ballwin believes politicians in Washington have mortgaged the future of America's children. "I have worked in Congress so I understand usually with this kind of legislation if you are considering anything this huge, it has to go through a lot of scrutiny," Dogan explained. "But with this legislation hardly anyone seems to have read it." Demonstrators also criticized President Obama's plan to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year. They fear such action will hurt small to medium sized businesses by taking funds that would be used to expand the business and hire more workers. "Small business, that's a sole proprietorship, you can have 250 thousand dollars in income and you're paying that back out in the business; you're paying employees; you're paying for the business with that," said Hennessy. St. Louis Attorney Ed Martin, who once served as former Governor Matt Blunt's chief of staff, thinks the Democratic Party leadership failed the country. He thinks only a small portion of the nearly $800 billion stimulus bill will actually produce new jobs. |
| Posted by:Fred |