Feb. 22 Proclaimed Tea Party Day

Tea Party people from as far south as Valdosta (Nolen and Diane Cox) and as far north as Ellijay (the “Lion of N. GA, Jack Smith) came to the State Capitol to celebrate. 

We assembled first in a room on the second floor to learn more about the TIA and T-SPLOST from Steve Brown and Rep. Ed Setzler, who reported it was fatally flawed and needs to be rewritten. The meeting was led by Atlanta Tea Party co-chair Julianne Thompson.

We heard from Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers on a bill that would limit State government to spend no more than the previous year plus inflation-SB 20. Secretary of State Brian Kemp discussed the voting machines. Senate president pro temp Tommie Williams shared his concern about the national debt (which is around $47,000 per capita) and stated that Georgia has the lowest debt per capita in the nation (around $120.00 per capita).

Virginia Galloway, of Americans for Prosperity informed us that as we met, the House was . She also noted that the State of Georgia needs to get involved in education because, one, over half the state’s budget goes to education and two, the Georgia state constitution mandates that the state educate children.

Sen. Judson Hill spoke about Senate bills 471-475 on health care saying that the current budget of Georgia contains $100 million dollars earmarked to implement the first stages of Obamacare and needs to be removed (for more details go to www.georgiahealthcare.com). 

Debbie Dooley reminded us of the Tea Party Patriots Rally in DC March 24, that buses will be available and to contact her with any questions at debbie@teapartypatriots.org. We also heard from our Insurance Commissioner, as well as, Sen. David Schafer, former GA GOP State Director Kevin Harris, and last but not least, the author of the ethics bill, who stated that, that morning, they had discussed a bill about which fish should be stocked in which ponds. And if they had time for that, they certainly had time to discuss his ethics bill.

Moving from the second floor, I caught half of our group on the stairs going down to the rotunda for a press conference by Rep. Tommie Smith proclaiming Feb. 22 “TEA PARTY DAY” in the state of Georgia. This was in honor of the many Georgians who joined other Patriots around the country in that fateful conference call Feb. 22, 2009, which started the Tea Party Movement.

After the proclamation, he left us with these words “Taking the path of least resistance makes men, women and rivers crooked!”

-Written by Conrad Quagliaroli of the Cherokee Tea Party Patriots

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