It began in February when cable news pundit Rick Santelli suggested a Chicago “tea party” to protest the Obama administration’s economic policies. Since then, Americans in hundreds of cities have joined forces to organize tea parties of their own, all in the name of cutting wasteful government spending.
“People are fed up,” said Melodye Aben, coordinator for a tea party scheduled Wednesday on the east side of the State Capitol in Raleigh. “I get calls from people from every walk of life. People feel like they are either alone or no one is listening.”
Modeled after the famous Boston Tea Party in which American colonists protested a British-imposed tax on imported tea, the rallies have gained swift support across the state and country. North Carolina residents have scheduled rallies on Tax Day in more than 20 Tar Heel cities, ranging from Franklin in the mountains to Kill Devil Hills on the coast. Similar rallies are planned in all 50 states, according to a map compiled by FreedomWorks.
Participants are responding to recent trillion-dollar bailouts of the banking sector, which have stoked fears of inflation and unsustainable budget deficits. Large outlays for government-sponsored health care and energy policies included in President Obama’s budget have added to the uncertainty.
“My main concern is the ridiculous amounts of money they are spending in all different areas, but primarily the stimulus package,” said Daniel Martinez, another Raleigh resident helping to organize this week’s Capitol rally. “I don’t see how you can spend your way out of debt. I can’t do that as a private citizen.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in March that deficits will total almost $1.7 trillion this year and $1.1 trillion next year, the largest percentage of gross domestic product since World War II. The CBO also predicted that Obama’s proposed budget would double the deficit over the next decade.
Supporters of the president’s policies say the spending is necessary to jumpstart a sputtering economy. But limited-government advocates argue the deficits are bankrupting the country, and fears of burying future generations in debt are prompting citizens to action.
“Most people in the country work hard, pay their taxes, and also pay their own mortgages,” said Dallas Woodhouse, president of the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity. “The idea that we should have to pay other people’s mortgages who can’t or won’t pay their own just does not sit well with people.”
Tea party participants are not confining their outrage to one political party, either. The movement got its start in October when a blogger proposed sending tea bags to the White House and Congress to protest a $700 billion mortgage industry bailout that was backed by former President Bush and some congressional Republicans.
“These tea parties are not about political parties. They are about opposing big government, mostly by new grass-roots activists,” Woodhouse said.
Dr. Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, said Americans are nervous about tax increases, and that’s fueling the tea parties.
“Given the nature of the economy at the moment, and given some of the proposed solutions, especially at the federal level but also scattered across some of the states, people’s sensitivity to the tax issue is generally heightened at the moment,” Taylor said.
Aben said that news of the tea parties has spread mostly through word-of-mouth and that few media outlets have picked up the story, but that hasn’t stopped residents from coming out to have their voices heard.
“I am not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but I am better at making decisions for my family than the government could ever be,” she said.
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.