Tea party leads rally supporting Boehner in talks on debt ceiling – Dayton Daily News
By Micheal Pitman , Staff Writer 11:16 PM Monday, July 25, 2011
WEST CHESTER TWP., Butler County — A couple of hundred tea party members from across Southwest Ohio descended on House Speaker John Boehner’s home office with two messages: cut spending and stay strong.
The rally was a local reaction to the ongoing negotiations to raise the nation’s debt limit, also known as the debt ceiling.
Without signed legislation by the end of Aug. 2, the Treasury won’t be able to pay its bills and possibly force the country into default.
At the rally, which was organized by the Cincinnati Tea Party and held at the Lakota Plaza on Cincinnati-Dayton Road, a couple of hundred feet from Boehner’s West Chester Twp. office, people encouraged the West Chester Twp. congressman to not support raising the debt limit.
“The message on this, stand firm in negotiations on the debt ceiling and hold out for real and significant reforms,” said Mike Wilson, Cincinnati Tea Party president and emcee of the rally.
Several hundred letters — written by tea party supporters and members — were delivered to Ryan Day, Boehner’s district director at the West Chester Twp. office.
Wilson doesn’t believe the country will go into default if the debt limit isn’t raised.
“We are not going to default, and if we do it’s a political decision by President Obama,” Wilson said.
In the middle of the rally supporters was one protester. Monroe resident Ron Tolson’s message to Congress and Obama: balance the budget on the backs of the rich, not the poor.
“Mr. Boehner has said that he speaks for the American people; he speaks for some of the American people,” he said.
But the tea party members say they want to hold the Senate Democrats and Obama responsible for their spending.
Patty Franklin of Symmes Twp., like many other supporters, said continual raising of the debt limit needs to stop.
“It’s personal responsibility,” she said. “That’s our money.”
Some of the business owners at Lakota Plaza, which was the backdrop of the rally, supported the idea of the rally.
“(Boehner’s) protecting our kids from all this debt our kids are going to have,” said Mark Fugate, owner of Sports Gallery.
Bob Johnson, owner of All Signs, said there needs to be compromise, but raising the debt limit is more of a cop out nowadays.
“I think it’s different times I think that’s been the easy thing to do,” he said. “It would be a lot nicer to be the owner extending the credit instead of having to beg for it.”
But both sides are doing some “political positioning,” Johnson said.