TEA parties planned in CR, IC, Marion

DES MOINES - Gwendolyn Cornwell never organized a political event in her life.

Wednesday however, the Marion resident will throw a TEA Party outside Marion City Hall, 1225 6

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Ave., at noon to tell elected officials to stop living beyond their means, she said. The debt government is incurring "is stealing from my children and from my grandchildren."

Invoking the image of the Boston tea party and early Americans protesting a British tax on tea, Cornwell and others plan to use TEA parties to send a different message - Taxed Enough Already.

"We're a bunch of folks upset with local taxes, state taxes and federal taxes," according to Mike Thayer of Coralville, organizer of TEA Party on the Burlington Street bridge in Iowa City beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Wednesday will be Tim Pugh's second TEA Party. He organized one in February ahead of a referendum on the local option sales tax. That one attracted 15 to 20 people and while they were not able to defeat the sales tax, Pugh thinks it may have started to attract people's attention to government taxing and spending.

"We want to send a message out to city, state, county, federal leaders, 'Hey, we can't afford these taxes,'" Pugh said. "You guys need to come up with better solutions, reduce waste, reduce overspending, become more fiscally responsible."

The Cedar Rapids TEA Party will be from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Tree of Five Seasons near the intersection of First Street SE and First Avenue NE.

TEA parties in nearly 2,000 cities are being organized under the sponsorship of the American Family Association. The protests are aimed at a Congress and president, the association says, that approved for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it, spend trillions of borrowed dollar, give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks and reward those who practice irresponsible financial behavior.

While organizers of the local events are focusing on taxes and spending, the American Family Association's agenda goes further. It opposes government-controlled health care, refuse to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, eliminating secret ballots in union elections and impose a carbon tax on utility bills.

Organizers are quick to say the events are not partisan. Cornwell said she's never been active in a political party or attended a rally.

"It's not one party against another," she said. "We're just a people who want to tell government, 'enough spending, enough taxation.'"

"It crosses party lines," said Thayer, who describes himself as "Johnson County's most vocal conservative" and a member of the county's Republican Central Committee. The core group of TEA Party organizers is Republicans, he said, "but I'm hearing from people I've never heard of."

"We have a lot of Republicans who said they will be there, some Democrats and some independents," Thayer said. "It's just people really upset with excessive taxation. It's not a party issue."

Thayer will target the upcoming vote on a Johnson County local option tax, similar to the one approved by Linn County voters.

One thing organizer make clear is they won't dump tea into the Cedar and Iowa rivers. Thayer's group will dump dechlorinated water into the river because the Department of Natural Resources warned against putting all-natural, loose leaf tea into the river water, he said.

Pugh's group will pour river water into the Cedar "even though tea looks better than the river water," he said.

In Marion, Cornwell is skipping the tea-in-the-water symbolism altogether. She's urging people to bring their cell phones and make calls to elected officials during the rally.

To find a rally near you, visit: http://www.teapartyday.com/Locations.aspx.