Conservatives massed in the many tens of thousands this weekend, flooding the capital from towns and cities all over America. The Beltway pundits and blogospheres left, right and center have bickered ever since about the size of the actual protest, missing the forest for the trees.
Many tens of thousands, from near and far and representing millions more, came to D.C. to protest the sexy issue of…government spending. It is the first major protest of this issue. Ever.
From today’s Augusta Chronicle editorial page:
We implore our liberal friends to stop slandering Americans, stop hiding behind the race of the president, and let’s all take a look at the issues together. This problem is not black and white; it’s about the financial solvency of America itself, and the extent of individual freedom we and our descendants will enjoy – or be stripped of.
If this is about race, it’s about a race to save the country from financial ruin. We are already awash in nearly $12 trillion in accumulated debt, the yearly deficit (which is thrown on top of the $12 trillion in debt) is between $1 trillion and $2 trillion, and future promises to retirees in Social Security and Medicare approach $100 trillion.
Whether 100 people showed up or 10 million, it remains empirically true that the federal government is spending too much money. Operating under the idea that a dollar taxed from citizens can be turned into something more simply by being reallocated somewhere else by the government, President Obama has continued the spending habits of his predecessor and tripled the nationa debt in eight months.
Obama’s spending, however, is on overdrive. It’s unsustainable and needs to be reined in. That’s the simple reason thousands gathered on 9/12 this past weekend.
For more photos see Mark Kelly’s flickr page.
