By Rick Dandes
LEWISBURG — Critics of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan marked national tax day Wednesday night with a “tea party” protest at Buffalo Bill’s Southwest Grille on Route 15.
Many of the more than 75 Valley residents attending the event said they were there to demonstrate against high taxes and massive deficit spending by the federal government.
As they entered the eatery, attendees were handed tea bags by Grille owner Tedd Biernstein. The bags were later thrown into a bucket of water, symbolic of the original Boston Tea Party, more than 235 years ago.
The Lewisburg protest was one of thousands around the country and is part of a larger grass-roots movement against government spending called Taxed Enough Already — TEA, giving name to the tax day tea parties.
Ed Bagwell, of Danville, felt so strongly about the likely impact government spending would have on future generations that he considered going to Harrisburg to attend a tea party.
“Then I heard there was a gathering here in Lewisburg,” he said. “I’m not angry. I came here to make a statement to our legislators because they are as much to blame for these deficits as the man who sits in the highest office.”
He then shook his head and wondered what a group of people could really accomplish “other than get some attention in the Valley.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Rick Gora, of Lewisburg.
“I’m here to lend my moral support to this movement,” he said. “Like everyone else here, I’m concerned about the deficit spending that’s in the recovery program.”
Bob Franks, of Milton, was worried about how the deficits would affect his grandchildren.
“They don’t deserve what we are sentencing them to,” he said. “The government is spending money they don’t have.”
He shrugged and said his attendance at the tea party was merely a symbolic gesture.
But for two Lewisburg residents, there was a real purpose to the anti-tax protest.
“It is more than symbolic,” Robert Kalin insisted. “With 2,000 tea parties across the country protesting our spending policies, maybe enough people will listen to our warnings. I feel frustrated by my inability to be heard by our government representatives. This is my way of saying, ‘I want to be heard.’ ”
Mike Hanyak said: “Congress doesn’t hear us. Our representatives look out for themselves and not our best interests. I hope these parties shake them up to the core.”
