Letters and Comments for May 11, 2009

Lawrence

Protest coincided with tax breaks

To the Editor:

Roger Stamy complained that a lot of misinformation was being disseminated by many in the press about the TEA parties that took place April 15. T stood for taxes, E for enough and A for already.

This whole thing was started to protest the higher taxes that the wealthy are going to have to pay after Bush’s tax breaks expire. The idea of the TEA parties was hijacked and pushed by the Fox News Network, which ran commercials every 15 minutes for a week prior to April 15. I might add that they were run free gratis.

It was a tax protest party ran on the day that at least 90 percent of Americans were getting new tax breaks passed by the Obama administration. Most of the left laughed at the whole idea, as they should have. If you want to know the main reason that they were

laughing, go to Wikipedia and enter “Tea Bagging.’’ Remember, the original statements were “Tea bag your congressional representative.”

If you want to show up at a tax protest protesting something else, don’t be surprised if most of the media covers the turnout with tongue in cheek. Three hundred showed up in Washington, D.C., 400 in Pittsburgh, 400 in La Grande where you got a free T-shirt for showing up (I almost went to get the T-shirt).

The TEA Party in La Grande and elsewhere was funded and backed by a right wing organization known as Americans for Prosperity. Now the Republican National Committee is trying to figure out how to take the movement over. They probably will be successful.

If you are protesting spending, join a protest about spending, not a protest that is supposed to be about taxes.

Greg Lawrence

La Grande