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Republican rally ‘ teas ‘ off on rising taxes
Boston Herald (MA) - Saturday, April 16, 1994
Author: Bill Hutchinson

As Bay Staters rushed to beat the tax return deadline, Republican Newt Gingrich led a Boston waterfront rally against high taxes and government waste.

As part of the noon event, eight rallygoers in headbands, feathers and warpaint re-enacted the 1773 Boston Tea Party and threw wooden tea crates in the harbor. It offended some American Indians.

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But organizers said they didn’t mean to offend Native Americans. They argued they were staging the historical event to demonstate how angry people are about high taxes today.

The Georgia congressman bashed President Clinton as a tax-and-spend ring leader and said taxpayers will have to work until May 5 before “you get to work for any kind of income for your own family.”

He urged citizens to take action, saying, “Government only gets as big and taxes only get as high as citizens tolerate.”

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Taxes way down the list of voter concerns, poll shows
Houston Chronicle - Wednesday, April 13, 1994
Author: THOMAS B. EDSALL, Washington Post

EXCERPT

Christine Todd Whitman, the Republican victor in New Jersey, came from 20 points behind to defeat the incumbent, Democrat Jim Florio, after she pledged to cut state tax burdens substantially.

“I worked for a month on the Whitman campaign, and we won that race on the tax issue,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who noted that Whitman took less popular stands on welfare and crime than did Florio.

“The (Democratic) left bragged about how Florio (who raised taxes) was going to be the prototype of the Clinton re-election campaign,” Norquist said. “They lost for precisely the reason that the public does care about taxes.”

A number of conservative and Republican leaders are planning demonstrations for Friday to revive the issue.

House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga., and Norquist are organizing re-enactments of the 1773 Boston Tea Party in Boston, Indianapolis, San Diego, Atlanta and Washington. Norquist said smaller demonstrations, many to collect signatures for anti-tax referenda in various states, will be held at post offices.

“It’s not as hot as in the late ‘70s, but it does help us a lot to remind voters which party raises taxes,” Gingrich said. “You don’t have the kind of bracket creep pressure you had in the 1970s (before the system was indexed to inflation), but wherever taxes have been on the ballot, they (proponents of lower taxes) have won, and where Republicans have made taxes a campaign theme, they have won.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour said he plans to speak in San Francisco on Friday, and “my message will be very plain: Look at your tax return and decide whether you are getting your money’s worth.”