A prominent House conservative told participants in the second annual 9/12 Rally in Washington yesterday that the Obama administration is using the recession to wage socioeconomic war.
“No American should face a tax increase in January…not one. We will not compromise our economy to accommodate the class warfare rhetoric of this administration,” said Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Chairman of the House Republican Conference. Pence told the roughly 100,000 in attendance to stand against President Obama’s attempt to allow a series of tax cuts for the wealthy to expire at the end of this year.
“We do not consent to higher taxes on any American in the worst economy in 25 years. When did higher taxes ever get anybody hired?”
Pence spoke at the same rally last year, which focused mainly on drumming up resistance to a healthcare reform bill that would later become law. This year, the message from Pence and other speakers, including conservative Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R), was purely political.
Pence urged the audience to focus on voting out liberal members of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections, while Cuccinelli touted his own efforts to stop provisions within the aforementioned healthcare law from going into effect in his state.
The rally was organized by the conservative nonprofit organization FreedomWorks, along with a number of smaller local Tea Party groups. Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project played an additional role in helping organize the rally both this year and last.