Ralph Reed has made it clear over the last several weeks that his new organization, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, is “not your daddy’s Christian Coalition” by which he means that this new effort will be young, hipper, more tech-savvy, and also more strident.
He’s also made clear that much of its focus will be on economic issues, while still maintaining the traditional Religious Right positions on social issues.
And to kick things off on the economic front, Reed spoke at a TEA Party rally last week in Georgia:
“Barack Obama rushed through a stimulus package – $787 billion,” [Reed] said, “almost 85 percent of which is pork and waste and bureaucracy.”
He said the president’s explanation of why “we had to have it right then … was that if we didn’t have it, unemployment would go over 8 percent.”
But the jobless rate now is “heading toward 10 percent,” Reed said.
He said Obama vowed that the plan would create 4 million jobs. Instead, Reed added, 2.6 million have been lost.
“He was only off by 6.6 million,” Reed said.
Drawing cheers for himself and jeers for Obama, Reed also lambasted the president’s budget, energy policy and health care proposals.
Reed praised the Tea Party movement, which drew nearly 1,500 people to a similar event at the plaza on April 15, the federal income tax filing deadline.
“These tea parties … across the country are scaring the White House to death,” he said. “… We are putting on our work boots and we’re going to take our country back to the principles on which it was founded.”
From a quick look at the photos from the rally accompanying the article, it doesn’t look like Reed’s audience was particularly young, hip, or tech-savvy … but hey, he’s got to start somewhere.
And presumably things will pick-up later this month when Sean Hannity joins Reed for his organization’s “Freedom Rally“:
