By: Ronald Kessler
The Tea Party Patriots launched their Contract from America in a nationwide effort to make Washington more accountable to conservative principles.
At a Conservative Political Action Conference press briefing, FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey; Sen. Jim DeMint, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform; and members of the Tea Party Patriots, the National Taxpayers Union, Liberty Central, and Regular Folks United joined grass-roots activists to announce plans for a final document to be unveiled on April 15.
It will list 10 grass-roots-generated policy pillars that candidates of either party will be asked to subscribe to in order to bring about economic and government reform and win the votes of tea party activists.
“We started this to give every American the opportunity to make a difference and to tell elected officials that it’s now time for them to listen to the people,” said Ryan Hecker of the Tea Party Patriots, who came up with the idea of a contract that originates with the people.
Norquist emphasized that the contract can be employed when evaluating local as well as national candidates.
“We also see this as a way to help unite the tea party movement and transform it from a purely protest movement to one calling for proactive and positive reform,” Hecker said.
Dick Armey described the tea party movement as riding on a “tidal wave of patriotism.” He noted that the movement is “leaderless, which is baffling to liberals.” With some pride, he observed that the president of the United States makes jokes about the tea party movement.
“The Democrats’ attitude is sit down and shut up,” Armey said. While the Contract from America is intended to enlist both Democrats and Republicans, he said, “I have no illusions that Democrats will treat it with anything but scorn.”
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{ 24 comments }
I appreciate you sending a representative to talk about the fairtax/flat tax questions that Neal Boortz raised. As a Fair Tax supporter I was very interested.
I understand the rationale to combine the two groups and hash it out later instead of splintering off groups. I agree with this strategy.
have a good day.
Dirk
There’s more than 10 that I like! However, you’re missing at least two big ones –
Protect the borders / stop illegal immigration / where’s the fence? and the other is
Fair Tax, I believe has fundamental differences from your “fair, single-rate tax system” .
Thanks
We need to get the word out on this contract from america. The more involved the citizenry is, the more successful contract will be, and this movement will become more ligitimate.
Despite of its name, the ‘Tea Party’ is not a party and I hope will never become one. ‘Tea party’ is the CONSTITUTION AND PEOPLE who deeply believe in. People who are ready to stand up and be counted when the CONSTITUTION is violated. We the ‘Tea Party’ certainly don’t need Dick Armey and Sen Jim DeMint and others to organize us and speak for us.
I am agree with Sam Connor:
Protect the borders /stop illegal immigration / “where’s the fence?” and the other related questions are not raised . Are you going to raise them later .. When and how?
.
Thanks
Yefim – DITTOS !
Secure the borders
Also, NO AMNESTY
And finally, NO TEXAS CORRIDOR
Not enough to make a list … you have to make it stick … you have to integrate the ideas with America … absolutely. The concept is noble but only if it is a means and not the end of the discussion … it should be an open-ended document that drives the competition of ideas, engages all America to debate the issues and the validity of those issues and reduce, simplify, and qualify the consequences and possible unintended consequences of those ideas in action. Ideas have costs and risks as well as rewards and benefits … ideas have consequences.
Demand a balanced budget: Demand accounting that reflects the realities of the state of the economy and the true costs weighed against the perceived benefits of the dollars spent.
Stop tax hikes: Define the limited role of government and the projected costs of operations. Define the role that government has taken claim to and report the costs of operations. Present the American public with an historical tax-timeline to give perspective to the way the world is and the way we would like it to be.
Protect the Constitution:
Achievement becomes possible by defining the source of authority. What is authority? By whose authority?
Many human beings fail to realize that there is no perfect information and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The perceived thesis and antithesis do not always produce synthesis. Reality is a dynamic perfect imperfection that requires the humility of asking questions rather than the arrogance of having all the answers.
I’ve spent the last couple of months checking out the “fringe groups” … attending meetings, talking with members, getting a sense of who, what, when, where, how, and why. One observation I made was that when human beings really focus on something, study it inside and out, and then move forward to practice what they preach by the letter of the law… they find out what the word ambiguous really means and that the law has become a tool for confusion rather than clarity, a means of moving any and all decisions into the arena of the courts where lawyers, money, and political power determine what is just. A system that is supposed to protect everyone equally from force and coercion has become a coercive force. Having spent my life as a free market non-conformist around the automobile business, construction, and real estate development, I have hands on experience with the powerful and most times conflicting and status- advantaged self-serving interpretations of what has become the lawlessness of the law. I’ve wined and dined with those who believe that laws are for the other guy, laws were made to be broken, and that the game is won by those who understand the Golden Rule as defined: “He who holds the gold rules.” The old saw that perception is reality has become reality, making everything relative and morality a fool’s concept.
Achievement becomes possible by defining the source of authority. What is authority? By whose authority?
Pass market-based healthcare & healthcare insurance reform:
Again this is the kind of thinking that created the problems we are face today. So much energy goes into selling things whose value must be challenged for the very fact that it must be sold … if it was that good it would emerge in the free market in the form of demands made by the wisdom of the crowds.
The question is not what the government should do, but rather if it should do it at all.
Being a TEA Party participant at the local level and at the DC Rally on Sept 12 I was thrilled at the spontaneous support this movement has generated. I do have some misgivings about the Contract from America. 10 of the 21 points are related to fiscal concerns, several others reaffirm Bill of Rights protections and several others address congressional abuses. I am dismayed that there are no points addressing: securing the borders, controlling immigration, securing the integrity of the ballot box and our electoral process, depoliticized the census and making English the official language of government.
Another concern is that we guard against being co-opted by the GOP. I am suspicious of Dick Armey and Bob Barr who have ties to the ACLU. This movement is political but must remain non-partisan and hold both parties to account.
The top issue is not listed.
Government spending must be cut.
Stating that the budget must be balanced will lead to tax increases and excessive burden on our products, businesses and people.
Setting up a “Blue Ribbon commission” will just lead to delays and long report that will never be implemented.
When any program is cut there will be excessive complaints from the beneficiary of the program.
The only way to accomplish making the government smaller and eliminating non-essential programs is to get politicians to agree to support the following:
Reduce every program by a minimum of 10% without exception (Military, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Department of Education Etc.) and reduce the overall budget 15% by cutting some programs more and eliminating unnecessary programs.
If this policy is used in the 2010 election then the newly elected members of congress will have a mandate to act.
Michael Day
Minneapolis, MN
I agree with others one of the choices should have been: a sensible Immigration reform-no illegal immigration.
Are we a Society of Contracts or are we a Society of Status?
We were conceived in Liberty as a self-governing nation of the People, by the People, and for the People who were endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness by each individuals standard of value, ways, and means. We recognize the need for the smallest, least intrusive form of government that subordinates order to freedom, a Republican form of government defined and limited by The Constitution. A government whose primary function is to preserve the peace, defend the country, provide a mechanism whereby individuals can adjudicate their disputes, and protect individuals from being coerced by other individuals.
The Contract from America list is limited by its attempt to conclusively define significant and relevant issues that in themselves are the consequences of a government that has broken from the moeurs of The Constitution. The contract will be implied by the reasonable actions taken to audit this government’s over-reaching powers, authority, and functions and the prudent actions taken by the authority vested in We the People by the Constitution of the United States of America to eliminate all of those that do not meet the requirements of being Constitutional, Moral, Necessary, and Affordable.
Where is stopping illegal immigration, and stoping government unions?
I agree with Sam Connor:
Protect the borders /stop illegal immigration / “where’s the fence?” and the other related questions are not raised . Are you going to raise them later .. if so it will be too late. this should be the most important of the top ten
Our government has progressively subordinated efficacy to efficiency. By moving from a Society of Contract to a Society of Status, the system has been rendered subservient to the will, interests, and influences of a Fourth Branch of Power. The system has been compromised and is therefore corrupt. The Separations of Powers of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches have been compromised in the name of efficiencies benefiting the special interests of that Fourth Branch of Power.
Time for the running of a Constitutional Systems Diagnostics Test.
Audit the Government for Separations of Powers and the efficacy of checks and balances by the powers vested in the system itself … The Constitution of the United States of America.
Illegal Immigrant Problem and its costs financially and socially need to be on list. Illegals are huge problem depleting budget . Here in AZ each year all households pays $900 in various taxes to aid social services to illegals. CA taxpyers burden to pay for illegals is $1,100. per household a year. Enact Nathan Deal’s bill which prevents Birthright Citizenship to children born in US from illegals. Stop Illegal Immigration, Protect the borders / where’s the fence? stop Catch and Release / Use E-Verify, punish companies that don’t use and deport illegals.
Stop Amnesty. See NumbersUSA.com to be fully informed on illegal immigrant topics . Then fax your Congress and President to get on board with preventing Birthright Citizenship unless we too become a 3rd World country.
300,000 anchor babies born to illegals a year in America. And we pay for the birth delivery which costs $12,000 for each healthy delivery and ongoing monthly welfare for the child..
Disappointed that “enforcement of immigration laws” is not on the list. We are rapidly being over run by illegal aliens and are well on the way to becoming a third world country. If that happens, then the other items on the list will be pretty much meaningless,.
Were is the illegal immigration platform! Come on guys/gals… Grow a pair! Send the meessage that we are going to close the border. Build a fence. Allow the military to build it and enforce it> it will be done right, under budget and have the proper staff.
from TEXAS!
you are 100% right the law must be enforced to save our country. SOMEONE said a country without borders is not a country. Time to start the ETL club (enforce the law) to stop illegal imigration now.
US CITIZENS 1st. , our politicians seem to have it reversed.
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