Hundreds protest at FDL tea party

FOND DU LAC -
In Fond du Lac, one tea party had little to do with dainty sipping or pretty china, but like Boston, everything to do with outrage.

"Lets stop and lets cut spending, you can't spend six billion dollars if you don't have it and you shouldn't be spending six billion dollars if you can't get it without taxing people to death," Jack Lechler of Kiel said.

From Fond du Lac to Fort Lauderdale, tea parties spanned the nation protesting increasing government spending and high taxes. Organizers call it a Tax Day Tea Party, "TEA" standing for taxed enough already.

"You know it's a spontaneous event, it's not partisan, it's not supposed to be partisan," an organizer posing as Ben Franklin said. "There are a whole lot of people here who are partisan, but that's America."

More than 300 gathered in Veteran's Park, offering signs and shouts of discontent.

Jamie Gabrhel says she came with and for her children.

"We're concerned for their future as they grow older and taxes grow higher, we're concerned for their standard of living," Gabrhel said.

"We need to be paying debt down, we don't need to be hiking it up more," her husband Luke said.

But, others in the crowd saw it differently. Fond du Lac County Democratic Party Chair Rich Mantz says many Americans just got a tax cut. He says spending is necessary in a recession.

"Government must spend, when everyone else is not spending the only way we're going to get out of it is through some government spending," Mantz said.

Many say they're unhappy with the current tax burden, but are most concerned with future rates. Others, question the impact of the government stimulus package.

"Every economist that I hear talking says the only way out of this is inflation or very high taxes," Less Lund of Plymouth said.

In the end, those who gathered say they hope their display will be a new beginning, cause to think and reminder patriotic protest has lived beyond Boston.