This is not about healthcare. This is about government intrusion. Not just perceived intrusion by the current White House administration, but the former administration, says local Tea Party organizer Pat Croisetiere.
That’s why Croisetiere has organized a Sept. 12 bus trip to Washington to join what is expected to be as many as a million other people who are fed up with everything from bailouts to cap and trade.
Croisetiere organized the Roanoke Valley Tea Party earlier this year and the attendance astounded her. “I expected 50 people,” she told The Spin yesterday. At its peak there were 400 people there and then when Croisetiere looked at the sign-in sheets there were people who signed in as couples, meaning attendance was more like 450 to 460.
“That was with two weeks planning,” said Bobby Norwood, who also plans to attend the September event.
Because of the success of the local Tea Party, Croisetiere believes it’s time to join others who have had enough of big government. A bus with a 55-person capacity is leaving early that morning and there are still a few spots available, she said.
“There’s no one issue,” Croisetiere said. “It’s big government. It’s the culmination of years of cram it down your throat politicians.”
This is neither a right or left wing movement, Croisetiere said, explaining people who were once cast in either ideology have joined the Tea Party movement.
Norwood knows firsthand what government run healthcare is like. He is a veteran who would have to wait two to four weeks to get a doctor’s appointment for a simple health problem. “In my opinion they’re not doing our will,” he said of the government. “They’re doing their will.”
Cap and trade is another issue to which the group is opposed, Croisetiere said.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cap and trade is an environmental policy tool that delivers results with a mandatory cap on emissions while providing sources flexibility in how they comply. Successful cap and trade programs reward innovation, efficiency, and early action and provide strict environmental accountability without inhibiting economic growth, the agency says on its website.
To Croisetiere, it is more government interference which has the possibility of the government telling people what light bulbs to buy, setting emissions ratings for air conditioners and other appliances. “We’ve always had recycling,” she said. “The thing is it is your choice, it was not being forced upon us.”
Under cap and trade, people won’t be able to sell a house “until the government approves it being green enough,” she said.
If people don’t get involved, Croisetiere said, there is the chance they will be paying for government programs for decades to come. When her daughter asked her why she was getting involved she said she told her, “I’m doing it for you and my grandchildren. Who’s going to pay back trillions of dollars? Your grandchildren and my grandchildren.”
Croisetiere said people in the Tea Party movement are not trying to reach Obama or McCain supporters, but the 100 million people who didn’t vote. “We’re trying to let them know what their vote does mean.”
Currently 45 people have signed up for the trip and the bus holds 55. For more information email Croisetiere at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or log onto the group’s website at www.roanokevalleypatriots.com. The group can also be found on the social networking website Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Roanoke-Valley-Patriots/117041191732.
