I've had a number of people request that post the text of the speech I gave at the Saint Paul Tax Day Tea Party. The speech is below. I believe it got a good reception, plenty of hollering from the crowd, plenty of reaction. I still haven't received the tape of the speech from the organizers. I will post that when it comes through.


Good evening. I want to begin by pointing out that unlike many of the protests we’ve seen on these grounds over the years, we have to conduct our event after hours. This is because, unlike other protesters, we actually have real jobs. For the politicians, this is important to note: we’re not just a collection of brainwashed college kids. We are the adults of society. We are productive, we pay taxes, and we vote.

Like me, many of you have never been to a protest before tonight. And, like me, you work hard to support your family and try to do the right thing. What have we gotten for following the rules?

Our government throws our hard-earned money to their cronies like a bunch of clowns tossing candy to the kids at a parade. When we look at the actions of both the Obama and Bush administrations—when we look at the Democratically-controlled congress—when we look at the Republican bobble- heads who vote with them, we see that they no longer represent us, they just resent us.

How else can you explain their producing this insulting stimulus bill and passing this irresponsible budget? These are not the actions of a government in touch with its people—and certainly not one in touch with reality. Perhaps they are digging us so deep into debt because they figure that if they dig deep enough eventually they will come up in China. While they’re there, they can visit our assets.

This plotting mob of lawyers and malcontents are threatening to enslave our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren—enslave them to servicing a debt that bankrupts them before they’re even born. Previous generations expected their children to do better than they have done. If we allow these bailouts and this budget to stand, we will be the first generation to guarantee our children will do worse than we have done. Is that what we want?

We all know the biggest problem with politics is that it’s conducted by politicians, but this inept crop didn’t even show us the respect of reading this bill before they passed it. Apparently, we have elected the kind of people who will take a prescription from Jack Kervorkian without ever bothering to read the label.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t read the stimulus bill either. I’ve tried; the problem is that every time I pick it up, my cat tries to bury it in the litter box.

Our generation has a choice. Are we going to be the final generation of free men? So drunk on our vices that we can no longer summon the interest to save this union for our children? Or are we going to organize and confront this growing tyranny?

Look around you right now. These people, these Americans are your brothers and sisters. Together we are more than just a collection of individuals, we are a movement. In order for there to be a movement, each one of us must keep moving. We must take on these congressional pirates, and we must demand a banking system based on real money and not just happy thoughts and IOUs. We must remind them they serve us and that the government does not dictate the terms of the American Dream. Our rights, our freedoms, including our economic freedoms, are not portioned out to us by some sniveling bureaucrat on a Washington committee—they are conferred upon us by the Creator. We are Americans and we are free, we will not bow to any man - or king.

When the government turns on you, it is easy for the average person to feel alone and isolated, to feel like the government won't listen to you. Well, I guarantee, they are going to listen to us. President Obama, Vice President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, Senators Reid, McCain, Snowe, Spector, and Dodd: You may be used to hearing crowds yelling “Yes we can.” But we have seen your proposals and we have seen your plans for our children. And beginning tonight we are telling you, “No, you won’t!”