Joel Tippens holds up a sign for an Occupy Chattanooga protest in front of the Republic Centre building. The protest was staged in front of the building, which houses a local branch of Bank of America, in a three-part effort to protest the bank, local representative Chuck Fleischmann, and speaker of the house John Boehner, who was coming to support Fleischmann's fundraiser.

Protesters from Occupy Chattanooga met in front of Bank of America at the downtown Republic Centre building on Thursday to protest Wall Street bailouts and a fundraiser being held by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann at the Walden Club, on the top floor of the building, with an appearance by Speaker of the House John Boehner.  The fundraiser was a dinner held at the private club where couples paid $1,000 for entrance.  By paying an additional $1,500, couples could have their photo made with Rep. Fleischmann and Speaker Boehner, and for $10,000 they would have both admission, a photo, and a “roundtable” seat near the congressmen.

The Occupy protesters said that they were there to represent the 99% of Americans who could not afford to “buy access to politicians.”  They wanted to draw attention to both the plight of Americans who make less than the top 1% income earners in the United States, who control 42% of the nation’s wealth and possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90% combined.  They were also there to protest the bailouts of banks on Wall Street despite apparent evidence of fraud and to show solidarity with other Occupy movements across the country.