More than 50 tea bags were thrown into an effigy of Boston Harbor in front of Sturm Hall that very closely resembled a kiddy pool on Wednesday, Tax Day 2009, by DU students joining tens of thousands of others around the country in protest of the state and federal income tax policies.
The event, a modern day Boston Tea Party sponsored at the university by the College Republicans, was meant to help students understand the tax system and the changes that it will undergo under the Obama administration, according to Jacob Gunter, Vice Chair of the College Republicans who helped orchestrate the protest.
This was accomplished by converting income taxation to GPA taxation and allowing students to see how much more of their GPA would be ‘taxed’ under the Obama tax policies.
“We decided that we would join other cities and towns to protest the tax systems and the ways that they’ve been abused. A lot of people feel they’re not being truly represented anymore by the politicians,” Gunter said.
The organizers of the protest said their primary goal was to inform students and not to incite conflict; however the event did incite some controversy.
“The biggest confrontation I saw came from a university staff member and comments about how the Republican Party was out of touch and how we were wasting tea. But most people were respectful of what we were trying to do,” said the College Republicans chair Jillian Rowley.
Not all students, however, agreed with the motives of the rally.
“This is America, love it or leave it,” said junior Nate Knife
“[The conservatives] weren’t throwing tea bags for the last eight years. What’s suddenly got them so upset?”
Despite the opposition, the organizers, who said that the event was a nonpartisan effort, both at DU and around the country, said that they considered the event to be a success.
Similar tea parties were held in 250 cities and towns around the country.
More than 5,000 people turned out to the rally held at the Colorado state capitol building and tens of thousands turned out to support the rallies in other cities, according to Gunter.
Gunter said that as a national movement, the rallies were meant not only to inform, but also to pressure state and federal governments to reconsider existing tax policies.
“[The national movement] is going to be getting a lot of media. A lot of people are starting to hear about it and the politicians are going to hear about it,” Gunter said.
One protester at the Denver Tea Party rally said that he attended the rally because he worried about the legacy of debt that the current administration’s fiscal policies would leave his children to pay off.
Under the Obama Administration’s tax brackets the top two tax brackets, households that earn more than $140,000 yearly and households that earn more than $250,000 per year will increase from 33 percent to 36 percent and from 35 to 39 percent respectively.
Many of the lower income tax brackets will see cuts to their 2009 income taxes under President Obama’s tax policies from those of former President Bush.
