Tea Party Protests Are Planned For Tax Day

Critics Say Protests Are Planned By Right-Wing Forces

Apr 4, 2009 Jon Pike

Several American cities will be the site of Tax Day Tea Parties to protest the budget plans of the Obama Administration. But critics doubt the spontaneity of the events.

People are set to protest against the Obama administration’s spending plans on tax day: April 15th. The protests are being touted by their organizers as : “Tax Day Tea Parties.” But critics of the planned demonstrations are casting doubt on their authenticity as a grass-roots movement and say that powerful conservative and Republican forces are the true organizers behind the event.

Tea Party Originates With Comment By Rick Santelli

The proposed Tea Party protests are named after the famous Boston Tea Party that helped precipitate the American Revolution. Under cover of night, American patriots, dressed as Native Americans, crept into Boston Harbor to dump imported tea off of ships to protest the levying of taxes in the American colonies.

The proposed Tea Parties for 2009, supposedly originated with a call by CNBC stock market reporter Rick Santelli to hold such an event in Chicago to protest budget plans by the Obama administration. Since that broadcast, however, Santelli and CNBC have backed off of any involvement with the Tax Day Tea Parties.

Journalists Say That Tea Party Originated With Right-Wing Leaders

Bloggers and investigative journalists, Mark Ames and Yasha Levine noted how quickly the events got organized following Santelli’s call for a Tea Party protest in Chicago on Tax Day:

Within hours of Santelli’s rant, a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com sprang to life. Essentially inactive until that day, it now featured a YouTube video of Santelli’s “tea party” rant and billed itself as the official home of the Chicago Tea Party. The domain was registered in August, 2008 by Zack Christenson, a dweeby Twitter Republican and producer for a popular Chicago rightwing radio host Milt Rosenberg—a familiar name to Obama campaign people.

Thus, did Ames and Levine make the accusation that the Tea Party idea was put together last year. In their report, Ames and Levine identify the powerful Koch Family of Koch Industries as being instrumental in funding the effort.

Organizers of the event say that this not a Republican Party function. In some cases, they have said no to Republican luminaries, such as Louisiana lawmaker David Vitter who wanted to speak at these events. Vitter, however, has introduced a bill recognizing April 15th as Tea Party Day. The conservative luminaries will be in full force at other events, thought. Fox News personalities, Neil Cavuto and Sean Hannity will be at events in Sacramento and Atlanta. Newt Gingrich will be at event in New York. The event in Washington, D.C. will be held outside of the Treasury Building.

The copyright of the article Tea Party Protests Are Planned For Tax Day in Activism is owned by Jon Pike. Permission to republish Tea Party Protests Are Planned For Tax Day in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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