Tea Party wants all business to stop hiring

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A national Tea Party group wants business owners to stop hiring! That's right to stop creating jobs and sink our economy even further



ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A national Tea Party group wants business owners to stop hiring! That's right. Tea Party Nation posted a pledge online Tuesday asking small business owners to stop creating jobs and sink our economy even further as a protest.

The organization says President Obama and the Senate want to destroy the country's economy so they can remake the U.S. into a socialist country. The irony is that halting job creation would destroy our economy.

Tea Party Nation's call says, in part:

"I, an American small business owner, part of the class that produces the vast majority of real, wealth producing jobs in this country, hereby resolve that I will not hire a single person until this war against business and my country is stopped.I hereby declare that my job creation potential is now ceased.

'I'm on strike!'"

Tea Party Nation is one of the two major tea party organizations, and the group had Sarah Palin as their keynote speaker at their convention this year. The group also boasts at least six smaller groups around the Bay Area, but some of them told 10 News they want nothing to do with this strike against job creation.

Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, has taken to national TV and rallies across the country to spread the Tea Party's message.

At a rally in Wisconsin several weeks ago, Phillips told the crowd, "You know what? I like the rich. I like the rich so much I want everybody to be rich, whereas socialism, their idea, wants everybody to be poor."

However, Judson himself could be sending people to the poor house with the plan from Tea Party Nation calling for business owners to stop hiring in protest of President Obama and the Senate.

Kristina Gionet, co-organizer of local Tea Party group, Pinellas Patriots, doesn't like Democrats' handling of the economy either. Still, Gionet says this strike from the Tea Party Nation just goes way too far. "For a conservative group to send out a call to ask those businesses, who are in a position to, to not hire people I think is against the American way."

Gionet also told us it's "unfortunate" this group shares the Tea Party affiliation with the Pinellas Patriots. "The website says 'Tea Party' doesn't it? ...and the initiative is right there," she pointed out. "But this particular group that has called for this initiative does not have central command, if you will, of the Tea Party network."

The Tampa 912 Project, another local Tea Party group, also told 10 News they do not support this call to stop job creation. Karen Jaroch, organizer of Tampa 912, says they're not even affiliated with the Tea Party Nation even though the group lists Tampa 912 as a local affiliate.

No one from Tea Party Nation responded to requests from 10 News for comment.

Follow 10 News Reporter Chase Cain on Twitter @chase_cain