Chicago, IL – In response to higher taxes and unprecedented levels of government spending ushered in by the Obama White House and his Democratic compatriots in Congress, not to mention the Democratic leadership in Chicago, Cook County, and Springfield, the Chicago Young Republicans (CYRs) are hosting a Chicago Tea Party on Tax Day, April 15th, on Lake Michigan on the largest sailing ship in America.
Since President Obama’s inauguration in January, nothing less than “generational theft” has ensued. This larceny is an $800 billion stimulus package that will cost taxpayers an estimated $2 trillion once interest on projected deficits and new government programs embedded within are made permanent. Instead of extending the Bush tax cuts at a time when relief is needed more than ever, Obama will allow them to expire in 2011, simultaneously hiking taxes on capital gains, and unduly punishing individual initiative and the entrepreneurial spirit of the nation.
Closer to home, Governor Quinn proposes a 50 percent increase in state income taxes, rather than slashing bloated government programs, and Cook County President Todd Stroger ushered in the highest local sales tax in the nation. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley would rather raise taxes and fees than weed out city workers who march in his patronage army. Altogether, the CYR’s, and frustrated citizens across this state, are banding together in the Revolutionary spirit of this great nation to say no to oppressive taxes that finance indefensible programs, bloated public payrolls, and lead to the corruption endemic to our city, county, state, and increasingly, nation.
In 1773, in response to Great Britain’s tax on tea, disgruntled American colonialists, dumped forty-five tons of tea into Boston Harbor. The issue of oppressive taxation is just as relevant today, 236 years after the Boston Tea Party. "When our founding fathers dumped tea into Boston Harbor it was to make a statement about the tyranny of taxation,” says Jeremy Rose, Political Director for the CYRs. “It is not fair that the working people of America are forced to forfeit such a large portion of their own hard-earned income because of the irresponsibility of our elected representatives in controlling spending.”
In response to this list of grievances, the CYRs have chartered the largest sailing ship in America, the Tall Ship Windy. While we throw tea into Lake Michigan, we will rally for the reduction of these obscene taxes and exponential increases in the size of government that together stifle investment, suppress our livelihood, and most of all, take away what we as working citizens have rightfully earned.
In Chicago we are tired of burdensome taxes, tried of corruption, and most of all tired of not having our voices heard on these issues. It is time to send a message to the Mayor, to Springfield, and to Washington, that we are not going to stand for high taxes anymore. Join the CYRs on April 15th between 4:30 and 6:30 (set to sail at 5:15pm).
