Locals gather for second TEA Party to protest federal government

TEA Party protesters serve up signs at Codger Park in Colfax.

A little over a dozen people gathered Saturday for a “TEA Party” to protest what they consider a lack of fiscal restraint from the federal government.

The gathering at the Colfax Codger park on Main Street was in support of a national TEA Party march on Washington, D.C. the same day.

Local organizer Denise Culbertson said more than two million people were reported to have taken part in the protest at the nation’s capital. The TEA party tag derived from an acronym for Taxed Enough Already.

Protesters from Malden to Pullman gathered at the Codger Park and stood on the curb of Main Street and held signs saying “Honk if You’re TEA’d Off,” “Stop Spending We Are Broke,” and “Obamacare, LOL.”

Many passing motorists honked in support, while others made less supportive hand gestures to the protestors.

Organizers held a TEA Party earlier in the year that drew a crowd of more than four times Saturday’s turnout.

Culbertson said Saturday’s protest drew a smaller number because it coincided with the Palouse Empire Fair.

“The federal government has stopped paying attention to what they’re there for,” said Charles Klaudt of Colfax. “They just keep spending and spending without any thought for the future.”

Most participants said they were primarily concerned with the government’s bailouts of the nation’s financial system and spending packages that total hundreds of billions of dollars.

Culbertson said plans to pay for massive spending bills by taxing high-income citizens and corporations would impact the lower and middle classes in the end.

“Ultimately they’re taxing the poor. They’re just hiding it,” she said. “If you tax the corporations that make things we all buy every day, they’re just going to raise prices, and we’ll all have to pay more for things we need.”

Saturday’s protest was four blocks north of the S. Main/Fairview paving job, one of three projects in the county funded with federal stimulus money through the American Relief and Recovery Act.

Culbertson said the event was planned for Sept. 12 as a reminder of how divided the nation has become since it was unified following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City.

“We are trying to bring back the spirit of unity that everyone had on 9-12,” she said. “We’ve lost sight of that and our lawmakers have become too partisan.”

Klaudt said he was there to join a movement to get the attention of federal lawmakers, who cater more to the interests of multi-national corporations rather than their constituents.

“You can get isolated in Washington and lose touch with what your job really is and what you’re supposed to be doing,” he said. “Accept that if you are in Congress, you are there to represent the people from your area.”

Dave and Lyndell Repp of Colfax showed up at the protest to support those who supported their eminent domain dispute with the city government.

Lyndell Repp said members of the TEA Party movement influenced the city council to drop its attempt to condemn a strip of land owned by the Repps to provide access to a proposed new housing development.

“It was real important for us to come down and show them the same support that they showed us,” said Lyndell Repp.