Huge crowd for State House "Tea Party" on tax day

After hearing from opponents in the General Assembly, the Education community, and in his own cabinet on his stand not to to take $700 million in stimulus money, Governor Mark Sanford was happy to see a large gathering in front of the State House at Wednesday’s Tax Day Tea Party rally against higher taxes and big government.Sanford was elated to see people who agree with his point of view. “There was a gathering here at this same spot a couple of weeks ago with a group of teachers, a group of higher ed folks who were enlisted by their respective institutions telling me to take the stimulus (money) and that group was a whole lot smaller than this one.”
Echoing the thoughts of the crowd attending the rally, Sanford delivered a message for those looking for a government bailout. “Not a penny more! Not a penny more until big state government is cleaned up and reformed its ways, until big autos have reformed their ways, until big banks have reformed their ways.” Sanford’s comments were met with a huge cheer from the throng.
Sanford says the Tax Day Tea Party should be a rallying cry for getting government to change the way it conducts its business.
Sanford’s ally in Washington, Republican U.S. Senator Jim DeMint returned to the state for the tax day rally. DeMint says Congress must begin to realize that big government doesn’t work. “What works in America has always been and will always be freedom. We know that limited government, free markets, free people making their own decisions, keeping more of what they make, working hard, raising families, that’s what America is about. It’s not big government.”
The rally at the State House was one of a number of “Tax Day Tea Party” rallies held across the state and the nation on tax day 2009.
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