For the ignorant that don’t seem to understand for what the TEA Party movement really stands; here is the Contract From America which many Tea Party movement supporters are now requiring candidates to sign before they will support their campaigns. I know that candidates will no longer receive a single dime from me or a moment of my time unless they are on board. The percentages listed represent the public that supports the item.
The Contract from America Source Here:
We, the undersigned, 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, work to bring each agenda item to a vote during the first year, and pledge to advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.
Individual Liberty
Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression and free from excessive control over our economic choices.
Limited Government
The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country’s sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression, and poverty increases.
Economic Freedom
The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.
1. Protect the Constitution
Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)
2. Reject Cap & Trade
Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures. (72.20%)
3. Demand a Balanced Budget
Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike. (69.69%)
4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform
Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words-the length of the original Constitution. (64.90%)
5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington
Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning. (63.37%)
6. End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)
7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries. (56.39%)
8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy
Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs. (55.51%)
9. Stop the Pork
Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)
10. Stop the Tax Hikes
Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011. (53.38%)
Director of Operation – Global Poker Federation
Served seven years in the US Army with one tour in SE Asia and a three year tour in Karlsruhe Germany.
Graduated from Utah Technical College with a degree in Business Management
Previously worked with Boeing as a Computer Applications Analyst / Industrial Engineer – Provided top level management within the Military and Missile Systems Division with performance metrics and analysis.
A long time ago I suggested to the Tea Party Patriots that they have a candidate sign a contract before they recommend anyone for Tea Party support.
I suggested to two Tea Parties in Massachusetts that if any lawyers gave to Brown that they should start a class action law suit for fraud. He knew he would sell out to the highest bidder. We now have another of what I call a republicrat in office.
Things the Tea Party Patriots should do:
(1) Make the politicians sign a contract with an expiration date so that if a politician doesn’t introduce a certain legislation or cosponsor it by that date, then that is the date they agreed ahead of time that they would resign and give the money back to Tea Party members who donated to them. Scott Brown would never have signed such a contract, so he wouldn’t be a senator now.
(2) Tea Party members who donate to a candidate would designate that they are a member of a Tea Party in their payment in case there is a law suit.
(2) Any legislation the politician introduces would have to be conservative. That would keep other politicians from pulling a “Scott Brown.” It would also keep the democrats from running as republicans and pulling the elephant hide off after elected.
(3) The politician would have to vote for a bill they introduced. Just because they agreed to introduce it doesn’t mean they would vote for it.
(4) Sue any politician who doesn’t live up to their signed contract.
(5) We need to use the phrase, “Pulling a Scott Brown” a lot. Let’s not let him forget what he did.
I made the mistake of supporting Scott Brown, before he was a viable candidate, and helped get over 2 million emails sent out on his behalf and his first action was vote for more spending. I’ll NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!
I guess a “Republican” from Massachusetts is still a liberal by any sane person’s standards.
Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for Senate, running against Patty “Dim Bulb” Murray in Washington State has signed the contract.
It would be nice if we could hold politicians accountable for their promises. You have some interesting suggestions Smorg.
@Donald Bly: You didn’t make a mistake in supporting Scott Brown. Over time, he’ll prove his worth and even at his worst he’s better than Martha Coakley on a good day.
I never expected him to vote with Sen. Jim DeMint (my favorite SC Senator) on every issue.
Of course I do expect him to vote to put a Republican in the Majority Leader’s Office.
I’m not prepared to give up on Scott Brown yet. I, too, gave money to his campaign. However, I don’t expect a rubber stamp vote from anyone. I am disappointed that he is not leaning more to the right. I can accept a centrist though. Have to wait and see. If he begins to be a major problem, he can be voted out…wasn’t his just an interim seat? When will he be coming up for re-election? Does he have until 2012?
@Donald Bly: Thanks for posting this. It’s a good reminder, even for those of us who are familiar with it. I too supported Scott Brown & I am mad as hell that he voted for the Frank-Dodd fiasco. What a dumbass!!! He shut down comments on his Facebook page right after the vote, people were so P.O.’d. We have a similar dilemma here in Cailfornia for the Senate seat. Babs (don’t call me Ma’am) Boxer HAS TO GO!! But her opponent is Carly Fiorina, who has not signed this contract, and who is a phony conservative in my opinion. How do I know? I work for HP, the company she almost single-handed destroyed as the former CEO. I say almost, because the board fired her ass before she could complete her mission. So the way I look at it you either vote FOR someone, or you can vote AGAINST someone. So my vote for Carly will be a vote against Babs, but I am going to have to take my air-sickness bag with me when I do it.