The Tea Party Express bus — one of the movement’s key public outreach efforts — is scheduled to spend most of this weekend in Michigan on a tour aimed at unseating supporters of President Barack Obama’s health care plan and big government in all its forms.

Northern Michigan is getting special attention because it is the home district of U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, who emerged from Congress’ health care debate  as a prime target of anti-government ire for his support of what foes call Obamacare.

The first five of 10 Michigan bus tour stops are to begin on Thursday in the Upper Peninsula and in Stupak territory below the bridge. The Michigan leg is to conclude on Sunday morning in Clinton Township. The Tea Party Express tour is to conclude on Tax Day, April 15, in Washington as part of a planned protest gathering.

Mark Williams, a Sacramento-based radio host and Tea Party Express organizer, described the bus tour as “a traveling constitutional road show … and guerrilla media machine,” the goal of which is to “engage and inform the electorate and get people fired up.”

Williams said the Tea Party Express is part of a broader movement that doesn’t have a single agenda beyond “defending the Constitution.” But the health care overhaul that squeaked through Congress late last month has become a unifying issue for people opposed to it, he said.

Joan Fabiano, a GM retiree and Tea Party activist from Holt, said he intends to join the bus tour on its swing through Michigan.

“People are very upset and very motivated to see this thing (the health care legislation) repealed,” Fabiano said. “This is going to be the most important election year in Michigan history.”

Source:freep.com/DAWSON BELL