Staff Photo by Lesley Onstott Shirley Patterson checks off names as she stands in the aisle of a charter bus headed for Washington D.C., Wednesday night. Patterson organized a trip to the capital for people who want to participate in the Tea Party protest.

For the second time in two months, Chattanooga Tea Party members have traveled to the nation’s capital to protest domestic policy.

A group of more than 40 people left late Wednesday for Washington, D.C., to voice disapproval of the health care reform bill in the U.S. House.

Organizer Shirley Patterson said the trip allows the dissenters to express their disagreement in person before the vote, which could come as soon as this weekend.

“It’s really just a show of solidarity that shows we’re against this socialized health care plan,” she said. “We’d just like for them to know our opinion.”

Tony Garr is executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, which supports the reform bill. He said he thinks many demonstrators are concerned with the growing national deficit. But, he said, now is the time to change the present health care system.

“I wish they had a clearer picture,” he said. “Because if we do nothing, our deficit is going to be to the American people and to American industry.”

Ms. Patterson said the trip was sparked by last week’s appearance of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program “Hannity’s America.” On the program, Rep. Bachmann compared the House Democrats’ current bill to socialism and called it unconstitutional.

The Chattanooga group planned to meet Rep. Bachmann and other legislators on the steps of the Capitol for a news conference today, Ms. Patterson said. They’ll head back to Chattanooga tonight.

Robert Duval said he’s going on the trip because he thinks the proposed health care plan is too expensive and won’t be efficient.

“I believe this goes beyond what is in the Constitution,” he said. “It increases the size of government. And it does not increase the size of the government for the benefit of the people.”