Protesters voice their concerns

Not even the intense heat stopped Alamogordoans from taking to the streets Saturday to participate in another “T.E.A. party” protest.
It was one of many scheduled around the country Saturday.

The protest, an acronym for “Taxed Enough Already,” took place at the Alamogordo Airborne Memorial at the corner of 10th Street and White Sands Boulevard. About 50 people participated throughout the day to carry signs in protest of more taxes.

The event took place from 11 a.m. immediately after the city’s annual Fourth of July parade that featured a flyover of a F-22A Raptor to about 5 p.m.

By about 3:30 p.m., the number of people had dwindled to less than 10.

Protest organizer Don Omey defended the decision to conduct the event on a day of America’s 233rd birthday.

“Why not on the Fourth of July?” Omey said. “The people who wanted to do this felt like (Saturday) was the day we should do it. It’s patriotism toward a real thing, not hero worship. You might say that we’re worshipping the nation and not some ideology or ideologue, in this case.”

Omey said the country’s leadership is going about solving the economic crisis the wrong way.

“Instead of penalizing the people that provide the jobs with more corporate taxes and capital gains taxes we don’t need more of that, we need less of that we should go to a Fair Tax.”

Omey was referring to the Fair Tax Plan, which is a proposal that replaces all federal income tax and payroll-based tax with an integrated approach. It includes instituting a national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, a dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and a repeal of the 16th Amendment (allows Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results) through companion legislation.

“If we went to the Fair Tax and scrapped the Internal Revenue Service, we would take all these taxes away from manufacturers the providers of jobs and it would be distributed evenly over everybody, including the people who are not taxed now,” Omey said.

Omey cited several “industries” in the United States that currently “escape” taxes.

“There is a trillion dollars worth of income that is not being taxed, such as black markets, porn dealers, solicitors, drug dealers,” he said. “Those people don’t pay taxes on any of that and they make scads of money. The Fair Tax would tax them. There’s something fair about that, isn’t it?”

Omey said the current taxation system is “part of the problem” when it comes to the current economic conditions.

“The way we’re going now, the people who pay the most will have to pay more. That’s wrong,” he said. “That’s part of the problem with the tax system. We very much need to scrap the IRS to a good tax base. That’s what we would like to achieve.”

Faye Gentry, of Alamogordo, also took part in the T.E.A. party and said she has become increasingly more concerned with the leadership of the country during the past year.

“We have to stop grumbling amongst ourselves and get out and do something,” she said. “This could be a start. I have been more concerned about our country during the last year or so, and trying living up to the Constitution than I ever have before in my life.”

Luther Morton, of Alamogordo, said he wanted to support the T.E.A. party because, as the acronym states, he’s being hit with too many taxes.

“A lot of these taxes are hidden and we won’t feel them for a while, but we’re going to feel them,” he said. “One of the biggest is cap-and-trade that just passed the House. I think we should do everything we can to prevent the Senate from passing it. It’s not what we really want.”

When Congressman Harry Teague, D-District 2, visited Alamogordo this week, he conducted a question-and-answer session with people during the grand opening of an office he established at the Otero County Administration building.

Morton said he didn’t get a chance to visit with Teague during his visit to the Tularosa Basin.

“I was working so I could pay my taxes,” he said. “I understand that he voted for this cap-and-trade bill. I called his office and expressed my opinion, but it’s another example of (Teague) not listening (to his constituency).”

“I don’t care what he says (about cap-and-trade),” Omey said. “We’re still going to get $4 gas. We’re not going into green energy; we’re going into the Dark Ages. There’s something very wrong about that.

“Do we get to green energy through the Dark Ages? Is that what it’s about? That’s what is appears to people who look at things squarely,” Omey added.

“I’m just tired of what’s happening to this country,” said Jim Kizer, who said he’s an independent. “We’re giving away our country and paying high prices for energy. We’ve got to develop our own energy, on-shore and off-shore.

“We get Chinese and Russian pollution on the north shore of Alaska, but yet we’ll cap-and-trade our country and let them go? It’s outright insane,” Kizer added.

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