We, the citizens of the United States of America, call upon those seeking to represent us in public office to sign the Contract from America and by doing so commit to support each of its agenda items and advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.
1. Protect the Constitution
2. Reject Cap & Trade
3. Demand a Balanced Budget
4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
6. End Runaway Government Spending
7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy
9. Stop the Pork
10. Stop the Tax Hikes
On April 15th, hundreds of local Tea Party and limited government groups around the country will join together to announce the launch of the “Contract from America,” a grassroots legislative blueprint for 2010 and beyond. Originally proposed by Ryan Hecker, a Houston Tea Party activist and National Coordinator for the initiative’s chief organizing group Tea Party Patriots, this project is intended to present a different kind of agenda for our federal lawmakers: unlike the Contract with America introduced in the 1990s, everyday citizens proposed and voted on every plank of the Contract from America.
Affordable energy is literally fundamental to prosperity. High energy prices always contribute to economic slowdown. The whole point of cap-and-trade and other such schemes is to raise energy prices to discourage the use of fossil fuels. They therefore will have a significant negative effect on the economy. The European Union’s weak cap-and-trade scheme has cost European consumers over $130 billion since 2005, but has not yet contributed to any reduction in emissions. Analysis of various cap-and-trade schemes suggest that they will do little to avoid rising temperatures without China and other nations following suit, which they have consistently refused to agree to.
Cap and trade also has a significant regional effect, imposing new costs on states that produce and use energy intensively (for example, in manufacturing), while rewarding states that use less energy intensively (for example, by being service industry-based). This will essentially translate into a wealth transfer from interior states to coastal states.
Congressional efforts to introduce cap-and-trade schemes should therefore be opposed. Heavy-handed regulation by the EPA would also have the same, or worse, effect. Congress has the power to stop EPA imposing such harmful regulations and should do so.
~ Iain Murray, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Taxes are already high enough in America. According to President Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget, total government taxation (federal, state, and local) ate up 28 percent of our entire economy in 2008 (the latest available year). Every dollar collected in taxes is a dollar not available to be re-invested by the American economic growth engine—the private sector. When the tax burden rises, it crowds out private sector investment and depresses future economic growth. The good news is that the reverse is also true—when taxes are cut (especially the most growth-stifling taxes), it frees up capital for long-run economic growth. This growth translates to more jobs, higher wages, and an increased standard of living for all of us.
A gargantuan amount of federal tax increases is scheduled to take place on New Years Day 2011. Income tax brackets will rise from a range of 10 to 35 percent up to a range of 15 to 39.6 percent. The capital gains tax rate will rise from 15 to 20 percent. The dividends tax rate will rise from 15 to 39.6 percent. The death tax will go from fully-deceased to a 55 percent rate and a measly $1 million exemption. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again “phase out,” pushing the mathematical top rate over 40 percent. And these are just the worst ones for economic growth. Clearly, to prevent an economic train wreck, these tax hikes must be stopped.
~ Ryan Ellis, Americans for Tax Reform
