Cincinnati, OH – Neither wind gusts, torrential rain, tornado warnings nor power outages kept the mighty red and blue Spending Revolt Bus from its Cincinnati stop on Tuesday evening. Citizens erupted into spontaneous applause and cheers when the bus arrived, which had understandably been delayed.

Ohio Director for Americans for Prosperity Rebecca Heimlich emceed the event and kicked things off by letting attendees know that Americans for Prosperity had banded together with several organizations that represent tax payers and families speaking out against the government’s fiscal irresponsibility.  They have visited 43 states to raise awareness to the severity of the problem.  Some of the ludicrous studies that she pointed out on which the government has been wasting money include monkeys on cocaine and whether or not it affects hot flashes, and exotic ants. More information about the Spending Revolt Bus Tour can be found at
www.spendingrevolt.com. 

The first speaker was Bobbi Radeck of Concerned Women for America, Ohio chapter.  They’re a conservative public policy organization that assists their members with bringing Biblical principles into each level of the political arena, and hold the view that Biblical principles are the foundational to this great country’s freedom. The organization has members who belong to various political parties and religious denominations, all of whom are deeply concerned about the future of America.   

Radeck said that just as Washington hasn’t been listening to the average American citizen and the many other organizations that represent them, DC hasn’t been listening to Concerned Women for America, either. She pointed out that the debt and insane spending practices of Washington will affect generations to come.  Concerned Women for America offers valuable resources and information at their website, www.cwfa.org. She also encouraged attendees to remain politically engaged after November 2 and hold their representatives accountable to their campaign promises, especially as those promises relate to fiscal responsibility.

David Williams represented Citizens Against Government Waste and holds the office of Vice Present of Policy.  He informed the crowd about a tool which they call their Congressional Pig Book.  This particular resource is a “list of all the pork-barrel spending that Congress has indulged in over the last 20 years.”

One specific example that he cited includes Florida’s Coral Gable hotel -- $750 thousand dollars in taxpayer money went to refurbish the hotel.  Another example is a $100 thousand dollar handout that the Tiger Woods Foundation received from the Department of Education. 

Williams pointed out that 2006 was the year in which the greatest amount of pork-barrel spending occurred prior to the present Congress.  He further explained that Citizens Against Government Waste has identified 700 spending cuts that “could save taxpayers 2.2 trillion dollars over 5 years.  So when a politician shrugs their shoulders and says, ‘I don’t know where we can cut spending,’ it’s in every area: agriculture, defense, commerce, labor, education, you name it!”  He also said that, “Our federal government is spending 112 dollars per second.”

Nevertheless, Williams noted that many members of Congress will “risk their career” for earmarks.  In what seems to be a growing kind of battle cry for the conservative camp, he encouraged attendees to make sure they remain politically engaged and hold their representatives accountable after November 2. In an effort to accentuate the power that grassroots groups have, he pointed out that the funding for Alaska’s “Bridge to Nowhere” was pulled because of grassroots organizing.  More information about the Contressional Pig Book or Citizens Against Government Waste can be found at www.cagw.org. 

Government Affairs Manager of Americans for Tax Reform Mattie Corrao works toward motivating elected officials to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. This particular agreement documents a commitment among representatives on state and federal levels in relation to committing to not raising taxes on their constituents or on businesses.  She pointed out that “taxes are the lifeblood for bigger government and more spending,” adding that bloated government is sapping 230 days of taxpayer income per year through their jobs in order to keep it functioning – this includes spending, regulations and all the taxes.  More information and resources on this topic can be found at www.atr.org

Ohio Senator Bill Seitz reminded the crowd that he and the other Ohio state Republican had promised to cut state income taxes on Ohioans in 2005 by 21 percent over 5 years.  He claimed that, “for 4 of those 5 years we delivered on the promise, and then Ted Strickland took it away from you in 2009, and he did it with votes from every Democrat in the Ohio House, which they control, and a very small number of Republican votes joining them.”  He added that, “I did not vote to renege on my promise to cut your income taxes.”

Seitz said he always tries to live by the following concept: “The government that’s big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take it all away from you.” He pointed out that this is why people are now working 230 days per year to pay for that government. “So you are sacrificing in your liberties what you are getting in the sprinkles on the donut that they’re crumbling down to you from Washington after they take their handling fee, service fee, postage fee and so forth. So the money we spend up there comes back as a small shadow of itself.”

He named the controversial “high speed” rail connection linking Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland as an example of fiscal irresponsibility on a state level. It travels 39 miles per hour, thus taking 6 hours to get from Cincinnati to Cleveland – and the cost of this elegant junk is about 400 billion dollars. Seitz said that Republicans demanded that Democrats prove how this is a good investment, and how the state won’t go broke subsidizing it forever.  The minimum annual operating subsidies that Ohio isn’t getting is 17 billion dollars.  Republicans claim that no one is going to ride a train that moves that slowly, and Democrats insist that the disabled and college kids will. However, Seitz pointed out that these are groups who really don’t have very much money to spend on riding it.

Another example Seitz named is Cincinnati’s proposed and unpopular street car, which would run along a 4 mile connector spanning from the Ohio River to Over-the-Rhine gang territory. The outrageous price tag to build this shuttle of trouble is 136 million dollars.

Seitz went on to point out that 40 percent of everything the federal government now spends is borrowed. He facetiously  suggested that a better solution might be to “go to Hong Kong, buy about 1000 rickshaws, and we’ll help Michelle Obama out by getting all the obese people in Cincinnati to pull them.  We’ll have a thinner, leaner population without borrowing from our kid’s future.”  Seitz went on to point out that the state government’s fiscal irresponsibility isn’t much different than the federal government’s fiscal irresponsibility.  He closed by encouraging the crowd to continue working toward helping true conservative candidates to get into office, and by making a point of holding them accountable after Election day.