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Rally at estate decries spending
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| People attending an "All American Rally" held in La Canada on Saturday, listen to speakers. (Roger Wilson/News-Press) |
Fiscal conservatives gather to oppose large programs at taxpayers’ expense and prepare for an anti-tax Tea Party.
By Christopher Cadelago
LA CAÑADA — Seizing momentum of anti-tax Tea Parties where Americans vent their frustrations over government spending, Republicans from throughout the Southland descended on Jeffers’ estate Saturday for an All American Rally.
Dozens of fiscal conservatives gathered to oppose what they characterized as the Obama administration’s imprudent bailout of corporate America and the inclination of lawmakers to balance yawning budget gaps on the backs of taxpayers.
“Even Franklin Roosevelt never came close to deficit spending of the type that has been done already within a year after the pull of the trap door on this economy,” said Wayne Jett, managing principal of Classical Capital LLC. “The kind of debt that is being gathered for our children and our grandchildren can never be paid off and can only be used as an excuse for raising taxes forever so that we will never come back to a full, open and growing economy.”
Billed as the answer to why “America the Beautiful” is becoming “America the broke,” the afternoon of music and speeches came shortly before the Glendale Area Independence Tea Party scheduled for Friday at the Jeffers’ estate. While Democratic lawmakers and some in the media dismissed the hundreds of rallies nationwide as “AstroTurf activism,” Assemblyman Chuck DeVore said the events were entirely grass roots and have the ability by November 2010 “to snatch victory from the jaws of this fiscal malaise that we’re in in California.”
“I believe that those April 15 rallies pre-stage what may become a massive revolt against the enormous amount of overtaxation going on in California today,” said DeVore, who plans to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer.
He sharply criticized the administration’s health-care plan as “another trillion-dollar scheme that President Obama has cooked up.”
“I believe that you are going to see California suffering mightily in this current recession,” DeVore said. “Probably second only to the state of Michigan.”
But the sputtering economy could serve as an opportunity for Republicans to get engaged in the rough and tumble of state and national politics while party leaders articulate principles moving forward, he said. Another boost could come from ballot initiatives that reduce taxes and spending.
“We’re at a point where some people are still down,” said Assemblyman Cameron Smyth. “I want to try and reinvigorate them and let them know we are fighting for them.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed lawmakers to move swiftly with the state budget, but has stressed that his biggest priorities are to not raise taxes, as the state did in February, and to close the entire $24.3-billion deficit in one go. The governor has vowed to veto any measure that fails to do so.
On Thursday, the Assembly approved measures totaling $5 billion that would have cut education funding and deferred some expenses. But the proposal was rejected by the Senate. Although the two parties remain divided, time is running out, with the new fiscal year beginning Wednesday.
Despite the revolutionary spirit unleashed over the Tea Parties, the discussion wasn’t all about taxes.
Attendees of the All American Rally, sponsored by the United Republicans of the Foothills, La Cañada Flintridge Republican Club, Republican Club of the Foothills and La Crescenta Valley Republican Women’s Federated, reacted with disappointment and anger to the sweeping legislation passed by the House on Friday that calls for the nation’s first limits on pollution linked to global warming, arguing the measure would further curtail the job market and increase energy costs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost an average household $175 a year, but Republicans cited reports from analysts that showed costs going up by $775 per household, and in some cases much more.
On the foreign policy front, U.S. Marine Corps Col. James McGinley, who returned last week after a year in Iraq as the deputy commander and chief of staff for the Iraq Assistance Group, delivered a 15-minute speech touching on good news that “doesn’t, or has yet to make the headlines.”
“Things have gone unbelievably well, and that may be America’s best-kept secret from all of you because obviously there are implications that if it was the right mission, the right place to go, and we actually did well, that has political implications,” said McGinley, the recipient of a Bronze Star who helped manage the operational relationship between Iraqi and coalition forces.
“It does not mean that we have perfection. If perfection is the standard, we will not achieve the standard. But if you are looking for something that is better, more stable more secure as we go forward, the answer is Iraq is trending in that direction.”
CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO covers City Hall and the courts. He may be reached at (818) 637-3242 or by e-mail at christopher.cadelago@ latimes.com.
Dozens of fiscal conservatives gathered to oppose what they characterized as the Obama administration’s imprudent bailout of corporate America and the inclination of lawmakers to balance yawning budget gaps on the backs of taxpayers.
“Even Franklin Roosevelt never came close to deficit spending of the type that has been done already within a year after the pull of the trap door on this economy,” said Wayne Jett, managing principal of Classical Capital LLC. “The kind of debt that is being gathered for our children and our grandchildren can never be paid off and can only be used as an excuse for raising taxes forever so that we will never come back to a full, open and growing economy.”
Billed as the answer to why “America the Beautiful” is becoming “America the broke,” the afternoon of music and speeches came shortly before the Glendale Area Independence Tea Party scheduled for Friday at the Jeffers’ estate. While Democratic lawmakers and some in the media dismissed the hundreds of rallies nationwide as “AstroTurf activism,” Assemblyman Chuck DeVore said the events were entirely grass roots and have the ability by November 2010 “to snatch victory from the jaws of this fiscal malaise that we’re in in California.”
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He sharply criticized the administration’s health-care plan as “another trillion-dollar scheme that President Obama has cooked up.”
“I believe that you are going to see California suffering mightily in this current recession,” DeVore said. “Probably second only to the state of Michigan.”
But the sputtering economy could serve as an opportunity for Republicans to get engaged in the rough and tumble of state and national politics while party leaders articulate principles moving forward, he said. Another boost could come from ballot initiatives that reduce taxes and spending.
“We’re at a point where some people are still down,” said Assemblyman Cameron Smyth. “I want to try and reinvigorate them and let them know we are fighting for them.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed lawmakers to move swiftly with the state budget, but has stressed that his biggest priorities are to not raise taxes, as the state did in February, and to close the entire $24.3-billion deficit in one go. The governor has vowed to veto any measure that fails to do so.
On Thursday, the Assembly approved measures totaling $5 billion that would have cut education funding and deferred some expenses. But the proposal was rejected by the Senate. Although the two parties remain divided, time is running out, with the new fiscal year beginning Wednesday.
Despite the revolutionary spirit unleashed over the Tea Parties, the discussion wasn’t all about taxes.
Attendees of the All American Rally, sponsored by the United Republicans of the Foothills, La Cañada Flintridge Republican Club, Republican Club of the Foothills and La Crescenta Valley Republican Women’s Federated, reacted with disappointment and anger to the sweeping legislation passed by the House on Friday that calls for the nation’s first limits on pollution linked to global warming, arguing the measure would further curtail the job market and increase energy costs.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost an average household $175 a year, but Republicans cited reports from analysts that showed costs going up by $775 per household, and in some cases much more.
On the foreign policy front, U.S. Marine Corps Col. James McGinley, who returned last week after a year in Iraq as the deputy commander and chief of staff for the Iraq Assistance Group, delivered a 15-minute speech touching on good news that “doesn’t, or has yet to make the headlines.”
“Things have gone unbelievably well, and that may be America’s best-kept secret from all of you because obviously there are implications that if it was the right mission, the right place to go, and we actually did well, that has political implications,” said McGinley, the recipient of a Bronze Star who helped manage the operational relationship between Iraqi and coalition forces.
“It does not mean that we have perfection. If perfection is the standard, we will not achieve the standard. But if you are looking for something that is better, more stable more secure as we go forward, the answer is Iraq is trending in that direction.”
CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO covers City Hall and the courts. He may be reached at (818) 637-3242 or by e-mail at christopher.cadelago@ latimes.com.
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