Community Viewpoint: Why We're Tax Activists, Staging Our Tea Party

We are both young law students. We are both married. We both have horrendously high health insurance premiums that we pay for out of pocket, with $500+ deductibles. We have near six-figure debt from years of expensive education. We both have had liberal, public school educations during our lives. And we have received a tax refund from the government every year of our working lives.

So why are we hosting a Tax Day Tea Party here in Lynchburg to fight against taxes, bailouts, government “stimuli”, and outrageous pork-barrel spending? We do it because we care about the future of our nation, our children’s future, and our grandchildren’s future.

Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek had it right: History has shown that classic free market economics has given the best standard of living for the greatest number of people, while the alternatives have been shown to regularly fail. Having been educated in the classics, particularly in free market economics, we know that free market, competitive economies perform best for all people of all classes.

What has made our nation the greatest nation that the earth has ever seen isn’t redistribution of wealth, high taxes, government bailouts, and regulation. What got us to this point is a good, hardworking, moral people taking advantage of opportunities created in the free market. The only way to achieve the “American Dream” is under a government that promotes free market economics and individual liberties. Government bailouts for failing companies, redistribution of wealth schemes, and overly burdensome taxes on businesses not only prevent people from being able to achieve the American Dream, but destroy the dreams that many have worked so hard to create. To quote the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Being witnesses to a total reversal in economic policy from the principles that brought our nation through difficult times to tremendous growth in good times, where so many have achieved their dreams after years of hard work, made us both realize that something has to be done. In Colonial America, our forefathers experienced the same sort of control under an oppressive and controlling government. The British government imposed heavy taxes on the colonists that stifled economic freedom and entrepreneurship. These oppressive economic policies forced our forefathers to take action against the controlling government in the form of a Tea Party.

Citizens across the nation, feeling the extreme burden placed upon them that is growing heavier as our economy has slowed, have planned Tea Parties to protest against the current situation facing Americans. As the federal government continues to spend more money as the coffers dry up, the burden of paying for the poor choices of our elected representatives is being passed on to later generations, with interest.

As active and concerned citizens, continuing to watch our elected officials grow government, restrict freedoms, increase taxes, and attempt to spend their way out of a recession was not an option for either of us. Once hearing that people across the nation were planning to have Tea Parties on this year’s Tax Day, we both knew that hosting a party in Lynchburg was our opportunity to lead a grassroots demonstration against terrible economic decisions that threaten to irreparably damage our nation.

So on April 15, Tax Day, we are hosting a Tax Day Tea Party in Lynchburg as part of the National Tax Day Tea Party event, at 6 p.m. at the base of Ninth Street, right on the James River. Former Rep. Virgil Goode, State Sen. Steve Newman and other local elected officials and businesspeople will be speaking, and music will be provided by Rick Rizzi of Low Flying Angel.

Please join us in telling our elected officials that “We Have Had Enough.” Find a link to our Web site on the national group’s site, www.TaxDayTeaParty.com.

McIntyre and Coble, law students at Liberty University, are residents of Lynchburg.