While you would never know it given the lack of coverage from the media, the Tea Party protests that sparked up all over the country on April 15th, were great successes. Average Americans are protesting the encroachment on individual freedoms, regulation of private business, tax increases, now and in the future, and fiscal irresponsibility. Up to 750 protests ensued across America on April 15th and continue to this day. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered to express their opposition to our irresponsible government. It’s not only the bailing-out of failed companies; it is the superfluous expansion of liberal social policies as well. Under the guise of urgency, the Obama administration has blatantly incorporated a mass expansion of liberal social policies to the “economic stimulus,” which have nothing to do with economic recovery.
A big complaint coming from the Left is that conservatives never protested the increase in government spending and expansion during the Bush years. In reality, conservatives were fuming that Bush supported the first bail-out bill in September, 2008, signaling the beginning of trouble. Even then, fiscal conservatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, contacted their representatives, imploring them to vote against the stimulus bill. As we all know, Congress did not listen to the American people. Protest was building!
During the Bush years, government was growing, but much more subtly. While Bush significantly expanded welfare, Medicare drug benefits, and the Departments of Education and Labor, the expansions were spread out across his eight years of presidency. People were upset, but by the time the next expansion was implemented, the previous one was mostly forgotten. The main difference between Bush and Obama is the rate of change. Not only does Obama’s spending plan dwarf Bush’s, he has introduced this behemoth during the first 100 days of his presidency, when everyone is watching! The American people have woken up and will no longer tolerate this unnecessary spending. I believe the American people are more attuned to politics than ever before! Had Obama implemented these expansions little by little, we may have never seen the eruption of protests across the country. Fortunately for the American people, Obama did force this upon us! The sleeping conservative giant has awakened! Let’s not go back to sleep!
