Small Crowd Protests Obama Visit to MontCo

Holding signs that read "Hey middle class, they are coming for your $ next," and "Taxing the rich hurts everyone," a group of about three dozen people protested President Barack Obama's visit to Hatfield Friday morning.

The protestors gathered in the vacant lot of a closed down gas station near the intersection of Bethlehem Pike and Unionville Road in Hatfield, waving signs and garnering the occasional honk in return.

"This isn't really about Democrats or Republicans, it's about the fiscal policies and that we don't like where President Obama is taking this country," said Steve Piotrowski, chair of the Norristown-based Citizens for Liberty and organizer of the protest. "I personally would like to see Obamacare repealed, along with the National Defense Authorization Act [and the] Patriot Act."

Several protestors had similar viewpoints, saying that they didn't view federal policy so much as a partisan issue, as a case of runaway spending.

"If I would have made a sign, it would have read "It's the Spending Stupid,'" said Bill Brosky, of Hatfield. "We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem, and I want financial responsibility. I had a problem with [former President] Bush too, since he spent like a Democrat."

However, there was no love lost among many of the protestors for President Obama. Barbara Walters, chairman of the Lehigh Valley Tea Party group with no relation to the famous news anchor, said she drove from Emmaus with her husband Jim to join the protest.

"We're here to let Obama know we want him to change his plans," Walters said. "I would like him to stop all the regulations on small companies, and I don't want him to raise taxes on those people who make over $250,000, because a lot of those are small business owners."

Many of the protesters were unanimous in wanting to see the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, repealed.