{"id":4459,"date":"2009-04-13T00:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/tea-parties-come-to-new-mexico-this-week\/"},"modified":"2009-04-13T00:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T06:10:00","slug":"tea-parties-come-to-new-mexico-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/tea-parties-come-to-new-mexico-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tea parties’ come to New Mexico this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Protests and rallies will be held across the state to express frustration with the nation\u2019s economic policies<\/span><\/p>\n

Elwood Baas of Las Cruces says he is \u201cfed up with the out-of-control spending of Congress\u201d that includes a national debt of more than $11 trillion, massive corporate bailouts and unfunded liabilities of tens of trillions of dollars in other programs including Medicaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is simply unsustainable, and would eventually reduce America to a banana republic,\u201d Baas said. \u201cI am concerned about my children and grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Baas plans to voice his frustration publicly this week at one of at least 16 \u201ctea parties\u201d<\/a> that will be held in communities across the state. The protests and rallies were born out of a recent suggestion made during a rant by a TV journalist<\/a> on national television, which has sparked a nationwide movement.<\/p>\n

The rallies, in cities including Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Clovis, Hobbs, Taos, Farmington, Silver City and even Mayhill, will be held on Wednesday, the deadline for filing personal income tax returns. Click here<\/a> for the most updated list I have obtained of the locations and other information for the events.<\/p>\n

Marta Nystrom, a financial adviser who plans to attend the rally in Santa Fe, said the events are nonpartisan. Though a registered Republican, she said she\u2019s actually socially moderate and fiscally libertarian, and she\u2019s been registered as a Democrat in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all united in the same desire to fix the problem,\u201d Nystom said. \u201cWe just may not necessarily agree on what it will take, but there has got to be a huge concern about this continuing to bailout these companies and rewarding them for making these poor decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Kind of hypocritical\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Though most interviewed for this article, and most who have been attending similar events across the nation, identify themselves as fiscal conservatives, one New Mexican with a different viewpoint who will be speaking at the Santa Fe event is former Democratic state Sen. John Grubesic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Never one to mince words, Grubesic said in an interview that he believes many of the people organizing the tea parties benefit from and don\u2019t want to lose the Bush tax cuts. He said it\u2019s \u201ckind of hypocritical\u201d for the wealthy — mostly Republicans — who have profited off of the government\u2019s poor fiscal policies to compare their rallies to the 1773 protest<\/a> after which they are named.<\/p>\n

Though many involved in the tea parties, including Baas, say they want lower taxes and reduced government spending, Grubesic said such policies have harmed the American people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to look like a Latin American country with the divergence in wealth. We are eradicating our middle class,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If he doesn\u2019t agree with the impetus behind the tea parties, why is Grubesic speaking at one?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole mess that our country is in is a bipartisan mess, and the only way we\u2019re going to solve it is to have a dialogue,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to speak from my heart like I always do.\u201d<\/p>\n

GOP will assist \u2018citizens of either party\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The Republican Party of New Mexico<\/a> isn\u2019t officially supporting the events, Chairman Harvey Yates Jr. said. But his office is tracking the parties and, he said, stands ready to assist \u201ccitizens of either party to protest their frustration at this administration\u2019s financial ineptitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have conversed with angry citizens of both parties who are concerned about the administration\u2019s proposed spending plans because they cannot ascertain that the government has any means to pay for its proposals, other than through a combination of massive tax increases and massive inflation,\u201d Yates said. \u201cThe former would move us toward European-type unemployment, and the latter would make this country\u2019s finances look like those of Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment is shared by Bob Cornelius<\/a>, a Republican and former congressional candidate who is attending the Albuquerque tea party on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am joining other like-minded individuals from all party persuasions who believe our elected officials should maintain personal responsibility and fiscal responsibility with our tax dollars,\u201d Cornelius said. \u201cI am joining the cause to show my opposition to this out-of-control spending by the Obama administration and to stand up for a free-market society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Heed our voices now\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Grubesic said the push shouldn\u2019t be to lower taxes or cut programs. He said most Americans are fine paying taxes, but \u201cdon\u2019t get the bang for the buck that they expect.\u201d That, he said, is what has to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to produce a product and we haven\u2019t been doing that,\u201d Grubesic said. \u201cInstead, We\u2019re Band-Aiding everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baas said he sees the tea parties as \u201ca first step in getting the attention of Congress to stop bailouts and reduce government spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI admit it will take more than a one-shot event,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I think it will encourage ordinary citizens to be more aware of what is happening in Washington, and to take a more active part in the political process as we go forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nystrom agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I hope will happen is that people who haven\u2019t been thinking a lot about this will start thinking more, and that they will choose to become more active politically,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point where people forget that elected officials represent us, and we need to be telling them what to do, as opposed to this whole top-down approach to government, where they tell us what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornelius said the \u201cenormous support\u201d for the tea parties in New Mexico and around the nation \u201cmeans that our citizenry is turning from apathy to engagement.\u201d He said he hopes elected officials in New Mexico and Washington \u201cheed our voices now and take a second look at some of the proposals being put forth by our governor and our president.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our elected officials do not heed our voices today, they will definitely heed our vote come Election Day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protests and rallies will be held across the state to express frustration with the nation\u2019s economic policies Elwood Baas of Las Cruces says he is \u201cfed up with the out-of-control spending of Congress\u201d that includes a national debt of more than $11 trillion, massive corporate bailouts and unfunded liabilities of tens of trillions of dollars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}