'Tea Party' draws tax protesters to Tempe

An estimated crowd of 150 people gathered at Tempe Beach Park to participate in the Arizona Taxpayer Tea Party, one of dozens of taxpayer protests being held across America today.

Tom Jenney, Arizona Director of Americans for Prosperity, began the event by proclaiming the Great Depression a "failure of government spending" and warned that President Obama and Congress threaten to lead America along the same failed path. Also speaking at the event were Republican state senators Russell Pearce, Jack Harper and Thayer Verschoor. 

The speakers were occasionally interrupted as airplanes taking off from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport thundered across the clear blue sky above. Each time a speaker could no longer be heard, the assembled crowd stepped in with chants of "no more bailouts."

The speakers also focused on local issues, including the Arizona state budget, which grew by a ridiculous 15-20% per year under former Governor Janet Napolitano. Jenney said that the solution to the problem was not tax increases, but cutting wasteful spending.

"If you dig through those budgets," Jenney said, "you will be shocked at what you see."

State Senator Pearce talked about the cost of illegal immigrants to the state budget and assured the crowd that "the candle of freedom has always been kept lit by a vigilant few."

One of those vigilant few, Paige Maximovitch of Phoenix, was one of many attendees who brought signs. Hers read:

Pelosi got her mouse,

Reid got his train

and I got the bill.

Thanks a trillion!

Maximovitch spoke of her own struggles over the years, and how she and her family overcame them without government assistance. She worried about the growing number of "people who think they should get everything for nothing. That's not the American way." 

Antje Skorupan from Tucson shared the sentiment. Her sign read, "I'm teaching my son that stealing is wrong. Somebody needs to teach Congress." She held the day's youngest protester, her seven-month old son Grant, whose outfit summed up the mood of most of the protesters.

Grant was dressed in a simple, white sleeper adorned with the following message:

Put it on my tab

The computer problems that kept me out of commission the last few days also prevented me from being able to download photos, so unfortunately I don't have any. Instead my friend Bill Dupray, the DC Republican Examiner, has some excellent ones of the DC event at his page.

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