by Jack Lee
April 15th was a beautiful day for a Tea Party in Chico. The skies were clear and blue, the temperature was cool and the crowd was big enough to fill the entire downtown plaza park. By some estimates the size was about 400 with up to a total of 600 that came and went. The protesters were well behaved, but they were obviously fed up with government spending and a myriad of abuses. (No doubt there would have been more folks there if it were not a work day.)
Former assemblyman Rick Keene kicked off the event with a remarkably short and to the point speech. His message, government should run their budget like the rest of us are forced to run ours. Rick gave a pretty good talk too, and so did his former aide Steve Thompson, who now works for Assemblyman Dan Logue.
I was next in line to speak after Mr. Keene and I suppose you could say what I lacked in oratory skill I at least tried to make up in sheer enthusiasm. That latter part was easy even though public speaking for me was not. My theme mirrored the motivations for many in the crowd: Taxation without representation…well, better make that very poor representation! We’re in effect paying for 5 star service and getting something akin to the service at the Bates motel. This sort of poor representation coming at a high cost sparked the first tea party in Boston, circa 1773 and now here we go again. And once again the people are fed up with government and the heavy yoke of taxation. Ironically, the abuses that started a revolt back in the 1700’s were relatively minor compared to our current government abuses, both state and federal.
So what is our professional legislature and Congress doing to restore the faith? The obvious answer is, not much! The problems seem to be beyond their ability (or interest), so instead of trying to fix the really big problems they work on passing thousands of special interest bills that do more to line their pockets. Unfortunately, these bills do nothing for us. They just advantage one small sector, like the dairy farmers who got price regulation to hike milk,
and so it goes, little gimmes here and there, but only to advantage those willing to donate generously to the party in power or to their candidates. But, those really big problems…forget it, they just get set aide. I guess our legislature is hoping if they set them aside long enough somehow they will fix themselves? Is that what Obama meant by hope for change?
Despite all our new taxes designated to fix this sinking ship of state, the latest budget looks it will come up short about $12 billion. But wait, isn’t that the number we heard when this deficit was first announced lo these many months back? I think it is! We were told the state budget would fall short about $10-12 billion back in August of 08, but then that number kept growing and finally our taxes were increased to cover the growing estimate. Now after all was said and done…we’re back to being $12 billion short again? Oh, that’s just great and that friends is why we were out there in Plaza Park and giving firey speeches about how we’re being fleeced by our own government!
Let me sum up today like this – less government equals better government! Hold that thought till next election will ya? Then vote accordingly!
Our sincere thanks to Cynthia Van Auken who used her own money ($185) to make this event happen and our thanks to all the other volunteers in all the others cities across the US who made it happen. I was told there were some 700 total with tens of thousands tax day protesters, so I hope our politicians were paying attention this time, because if they don’t, by the next election they could be looking for a new job.
Posted by Tina
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy shot dead three Somali pirates and rescued cargo ship captain Richard Phillips on Sunday from a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia where he was being held captive, ending a five-day standoff.