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Taxpayers turn out for Tax Day Tea Party

CLARION, Pa., April 22 – After the national anthem and an opening prayer, taxpayers voiced their concerns April 15 at the Tax Day Tea Party in the park across the street from the Clarion County Courthouse.

The controversial, grassroots movement centers on the core principles of fiscal responsibility, free market practices and limited government.

Clarion College Conservatives Treasurer Meagan Grau was pleased with the amount of people drawn to the demonstration.

“We wanted to get the community involved, and spread conservative ideals. What better way than a conservative tax day tea party?”

“People do care about the course of the government,” said Grau.
“They don’t want Washington running their lives.”

Many in attendance cited rising partisanship as a chief issue.

“We are not concerned with the things that divide us,” said Mike Armstrong, CCC president.

“We don’t live in a poor America or in a rich America. We don’t live in a Democratic America or in a Republican America.”

“We owe it to future generations to promote fiscal responsibility and limited government,” said Armstrong.

“We have been lied to, and we are now fed up,” said Clarion County Commissioner Dave Cyphert.

“Washington, listen up. It is not cannons or muskets, nor thunder from a gathering storm you hear in the distance, it’s the people of America raising their voices.”

Demonstrators cited public opposition to Democrat-sponsored legislation as a source of their discontent.

The health care bill is “good for the tea party movement,” said Elizabeth Bryan, researcher at the Commonwealth Foundation, “because now we have an example that exposes the liberal agenda as a naked power grab.”

It took District Attorney Mark Aaron almost 90 seconds to list the taxes levied against the average taxpayer.

“Before real estate taxes, school taxes and sales taxes, we are already at 42 percent taxation on a wage-earning American,” said Aaron, “and I think we have enough taxes, and we don’t need any more.”

“We have a terrible narcotics problem in Clarion. Our budget for the Clarion Narcotics Enforcement Team provides us with one part time officer,” said Aaron.

“That is inadequate,” said Aaron, “and the money we need goes up the chain to the state and federal government.”

“Pennsylvania is losing population and jobs because our government gets in the way of business,” said Rep. Donna Oberlander.

“Creativity, ingenuity, and the entrepreneurial spirit are met with stacks of paperwork, and regulations and restrictions,” said Oberlander.

“We are, as a nation, standing on a precipice,” said keynote speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Peg Luksik. “We are either going to stand up and fight to keep the America we know and love, or we are going to become something completely different,” said Luksik.

Luksik said that the framers of the Constitution “began the conversation by putting in writing that the state is not the highest authority.”

Not all in attendance were of the conservative persuasion.

Behind the gazebo, some could be seen with signs protesting the protest. One read “Tea Party? More Like White Whine!”

“I’m here because I believe health care is a human right. I know, first hand, what it is like to not have health care,” said Emily Young.

The Tea Party movement has taken root in all 50 states. These and other taxpayers will soon have another opportunity to have their voices heard on election day.