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From the Spokane Convention Center to Coeur d’Alene’s Independence Point to the Codger Pole in Colfax, tax protesters around the Northwest will be gathering Wednesday at TEA Parties.
No plans to serve Orange Pekoe, though.
TEA in this case stands for Taxed Enough Already. It’s a movement fueled in part by talk radio and talking head television, with assists from the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party, Libertarians and conservatives looking to put the breaks on federal spending to stimulate the economy.
Although organizers like to make reference to the Boston Tea Party, it’s unlikely that there will be much dumping of tea into bodies of water.
“That’s definitely not the plan,” said Gary Edgington, the organizer of the Spokane event, scheduled from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Spokane Convention Center breezeway. He’s hoping there won’t be hundreds or thousands of tea bags tossed in the nearby river that state and local environmental authorities would trace back to…him?
But there will be speech-making…
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Evergreen Freedom Foundation president Bob Williams and others will be speaking at the Spokane event.
The events are getting attention, both good and bad, around the country. FOX News has been a big supporter, although some media watchdogs like Media Matters, has questioned that as being less than fair and balanced. The Atlantic Monthly has written about the groups behind the grassroots.
Other Inland Northwest TEA Parties, according to the national Web site, include:
Coeur d’Alene: 3 p.m., Independence Point, City Park.
Colfax: 4 p.m., Codger Pole on South Main Street.
Colville:1 p.m., County Courthouse, S.215 Oak St.
Moscow: Noon, Friendship Square, Downtown.
Newport: 4 p.m., Oldtown Bridge
Priest River: Noon, City Hall on High Street
Pullman: Noon. Corner of Bethel and Lund
Walla Walla: Noon, Land Title Plaza, First and Main
Jim Camden is a veteran political reporter for The Spokesman-Review.
Jonathan Brunt covers Spokane City Hall for The Spokesman-Review.
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detrain on April 15 at 7:38 a.m.
What a crock. The republicans are simply afraid they may be forced to pay some taxes. I’m tired of taxing all the taxes while the free-loading republicans take our jobs overseas, hide their money in offshore corporations and create phony housing crises, then blame the poor. We need to get back to fair tax policies which guided this nation to greatness in the 50’s and 60’s.
Where were all these American hating republicans WHEN REAGAN DOUBLED THE DEFICIT in his first term then doubled the deficit in his second term, THEN BUSH 1 DOUBLED THE DECFICIT, THEN BUSH 2 DOUBLED THE DEFICIT AGAIN. So I guess the Republican Party is the party of spend and no tax but never spend any money on infrastructure or the neediest. Give all the money to the republican owned corporations.
I hope all those republican criminals that participate in this phony event are jailed.
richard on April 15 at 8:59 p.m.
You really don’t know much about history, do you Detrain? You might want to brush up on reality rather than just offering reactive liberal cornball exaggerations.
If the wildly exaggerated view that Republicans are the rich in this country and the Dems are the poor, then you might be startled by the fact that the lower half of wage earners pay NO TAXES, while the top 10% of earners pay 87% of all taxes.
The truth can be startling when first confronted with it. But if you don’t have the truth, you have ignorance. And that never gets anyone anywhere.