Americans are TEA'd

Americans are TEA'd
~ by Newt Gingrich (more by this author)
Posted 03/25/2009 ET
Updated 03/25/2009 ET


Americans are used to April 15th being the day you’re told to pay up.

This year, Tax Day is the day to say you’re TEA’d -- Taxed Enough Already.

As you read this, liberals in Congress are beginning the process of forcing passage of the $3.6 trillion, high-spending, high-borrowing and high-taxing Obama budget.

President Obama is even mobilizing teams of his presidential campaign supporters, now a political organization called Organizing for America, who are going door-to-door campaign style to pitch his irresponsibly massive government expansion program that will raise taxes on every single American.

And what could they possibly be saying about a budget that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted last week will lead to deficits $2.3 trillion larger than the Obama White House is telling us?

Once again, we see Washington promoting irresponsible spending and expecting responsible taxpayers to foot the bill.

Here’s what you can do to fight back: On April 15, join your fellow Americans at Tax Day Tea Parties across the nation to say no to the Obama budget. I want to tell you about two groups that are helping to organize the Tea Parties. Why these two groups? I will tell you in a minute and explain how you can participate.

Get Involved in a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15

You won’t read about it in the elite media, but tens of thousands of Americans in hundreds of American communities are organizing Tax Day Tea Parties for this April 15th.

Some communities have already held Tea Parties to fight back against Wall Street and Washington insiders who’d rather taxpayers ask fewer questions and write more checks.

Over 4,000 turned out in Orlando this past weekend.

More came out in Cincinnati than at anytime since the Vietnam War protests.

But all of this has been a warm-up act for April 15.

The Reagan Coalition is Reassembling itself to Fight the Obama Budget

Some Tea Party participants call themselves “God-fearing patriots,” and it’s a good description for the movement that is gaining strength.

In outrage against the billions of our dollars being used to pay for the irresponsible behavior of others -- and the trillions more in the Obama budget that will be used to expand government even further into our lives -- the Reagan coalition of the faithful and the fiscally conservative is reassembling.

There’s no super-rich sugar daddy like George Soros pulling the strings.

There’s no special interest group like Moveon.org creating the illusion of a grassroots movement.

And it’s not a taxpayer-funded “protest” group like ACORN.

It’s just ordinary Americans who believe in preserving American values and principles like faith, freedom and smaller government.

That’s why I want to tell you about two groups. Each group is focusing on bringing like-minded people together at the same events.

The first group is TaxDayTeaParty.com, a broad coalition of grassroots groups which has already organized many of the Tea Parties that you probably heard about. They have already confirmed more than 250 locations in all 50 states for the April 15 Tea Parties.

The second group is TeaPartyDay.com which is a joint effort by Renewing American Leadership and the American Family Association. They are committed to bringing people of faith and their families to the Tea Parties. Over 10,000 are already signed up.

Get Your Tea Party Tool Kit at www.AmericanSolutions.com

American Solutions has created a Tea Party Tool Kit that you can download and pass out at your local Tea Party. The Tool Kit is designed to communicate, not just that we’re angry, but that we have a bold agenda with better solutions that will actually get our economy growing again. It’s available here.

The Tea Party Tool Kit’s key component is 12 American Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity, a pro-growth, pro-freedom alternative to the irresponsible policies of the Obama budget.

April 15 is just 20 days away. Go to www.americansolutions.com/teaparty now to find a Tax Day Tea Party near you and get involved.

Secretary Geithner Has Lost the Confidence of the American People -- If He Ever Had It to Begin With

Another reason to come out to a Tax Day Tea Party is to let President Obama know that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has lost the confidence of the American people and needs to resign.

The Geithner nomination for Treasury Secretary was tainted from the outset. In the midst of a crisis of trust in our financial institutions and our government institutions, the last person we needed for a Treasury Secretary was a public official who had deliberately failed to pay his taxes.

And since then, the news has only gotten worse. As I wrote last week, from the beginning of the crisis last fall, Geithner has been central to the Bush-Obama policy of corporate bailouts that has enriched Wall Street firms with the taxpayers’ money.

The Joke’s On Us: Goldman Sachs Never Needed a Bailout

The latest revelation is perhaps the worst yet.

Remember how the Paulson-Geithner-Bernanke bailout of AIG was initially sold to the American people? We were told that failing to prop up the firm with taxpayer dollars would let loose a cascading failure of the entire banking system.

It turns out that this was never exactly true.

That’s right. Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar announced last week that his firm never needed the taxpayers’ help after all. Goldman Sachs, it turns out, wouldn’t have failed if AIG had been allowed to fail.

The reason Viniar made the announcement was to divert the public’s attention from allegations that Goldman profited handsomely from the bailout of AIG.

But in trying to tamp down one scandal, Viniar has revealed another: The ground on which Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke sold the $170 billion AIG bailout was -- at least partially -- a lie.

The Top Four Beneficiaries of the AIG Bailout? Goldman Sachs and Three Foreign Banks

So if we didn’t avert a banking crisis with the AIG bailout, what exactly have the taxpayers gotten for their $170 billion? Well, nothing so far. But here’s the list of the top four beneficiaries of the AIG bailout:

1. Goldman Sachs: $12.9 billion
2. Société Générale (France) $11.9 billion
3. Deutsche Bank (Germany) $11.8 billion
4. Barclays (United Kingdom) $7.9 billion

This is the real scandal of the AIG bailout.

Add the other TARP funds Goldman Sachs received to the AIG pass-through money and you get an astounding total of $23 billion from the taxpayers.

All for a company that now says it never needed help to begin with.

If that’s not a reason to come to a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, I don’t know what is.

See you there.

Your friend,





P.S. Today, I will testify in front of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Alongside former Justice of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O’Connor and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, I will discuss the recommendations in the Alzheimer’s Study Group’s National Strategic Plan to overcome the mounting Alzheimer's crisis. Earlier this month, I appeared on the “Today Show” discussing Alzheimer’s and will be on “Nightline” this evening. In my next newsletter, I’ll provide more details on the recommendations. I want to thank our members of the ASG.

P.P.S. Those of you who follow my “tweets” on Twitter have already heard my call for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to resign. I’m having a lot of fun with this new technology. If you’d like to correspond with me and follow my “tweets” on Twitter, just go to http://www.twitter.com/newtgingrich. Oh, and you can also follow me on facebook as well.



Mr. Gingrich is the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and author of "Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works" and "Winning the Future" (published by Regnery, a HUMAN EVENTS sister company). Click here to get his free Newt Gingrich Letter.