Issue and opponent: The United for a Fair Economy (UFE) targeted the Republican congressional party members: Richard Armey, Billy Tauzin, and Dan Schaefer. Congressmen Armey supported regressive tax proposals, and UFE claimed these tax changes were harmful to working-class Americans.
Dilemma Action: On Tax Day, April 15th, 1998, the Republican Congressional House majority leader Richard Armey with Republican congressman, Billy Tauzin, traveled to Boston to dump the tax code in the Boston Harbor. The move was to mirror the Boston Tea Party and signal a new GOP anti-tax revolution. Before the congressmen threw the tax code in the harbor, activists from UFE showed up in a dinghy that was named the “Working Family Life Raft.” When the dinghy showed up, 15 other activists dressed in formal wear, masquerading as elitists, surrounded Armey and Tauzin encouraging the congressmen to drop the tax code in the water. In the dinghy, there was one man and one woman holding a baby doll representing a working-class American family. The pair shouted, “Don’t throw it (the tax code)! You’ll flatten us with your flat tax, and you’ll sink us with your sales tax!” The congressmen were faced with a choice: throw the tax code in the water and “sink the dinghy” or not throw the code overboard appearing weak and ineffective.
Outcome: As the congressmen threw the tax code in the water, the dinghy with the “American family” sank and media sources captured the whole event on video. The negative press from the event had serious consequences for the Republican Party. The media focused more on what the protest was about rather than what the Republican congressmen were trying to do. Many media outlets framed the event as a David-versus-Goliath story; as the large ship with GOP members represented the elite compared to the dinghy representing working-class Americans. This hurt the image of Congressmen Armey’s anti-tax revolution in the media and made the whole movement Armey was hoping for the flop. UFE is a nonprofit fighting the uneven distribution of wealth in the United States.