TEA Party Drops Ball, Ignores Tremendous WEALTH
Sitting UNused in Its Goody Locker
Imagine you spent all of your days prospecting for a gold mine sacrificing and scrimping, working like a man possessed and living like a beast and then you, By Gol’ hit the MOTHER LODE! And so you buy a teeny-tiny bungalow and put the forty tons of gold you’ve unearthed in your dugout cellar and never, never ever once go down there again even though your lifestyle is positively spartan and impoverished . . . absolutely nuts, eh? That, my friends, is exactly what the TEA Party is doing right now!
When it comes to human liberty . . . there’s the much ballyhooed Magna Carta; our own Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution and most importantly the Bill of Rights of the Constitution and there’s hasn’t been anything else in 223 years and then PRESTO! The TEA Party creates the “Contract from America.” And almost no one knows about the Contract from America . . . gold in the basement which is not even thought about, much less used to make life better . . . it’s a shame.
To make the Contract from America a bit more useful and much more widely known and understood, Rajjpuut suggests that a series of public service announcements on each of the ten “planks” be released one a week for ten consecutive weeks emphasizing common sense; American tradition; liberty; fiscal conservativism, Constitutional conservativism and National Defense and control of our borders. A call for comparison of each candidate's oral and voting record to the item in question and for each candidate to pledge his coming term toward work on these ten objectives and sign the Contract must be made. Rajjpuut also would change the original wording ever so slightly (where wording has been changed, the heading appears in maroon type):
The Contract from America
We, patriotic and concerned citizens, 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; to work to bring each agenda item to a vote during the upcoming term and beyond; to pledge to advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom; and where necessary to seek Constitutional Amendments and repeal of present law for the good of the country and all its citizens.
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 SEVENTEEN 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.
Ten Key Principles
(Percentages given in parentheses, enumerate what percentage of our respondents felt each given item deserved to be included in the top ten “planks” of the Contract from America from among our original 24 items.)
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 and spend what that bill might require. Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require this action become the law of the land. (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. Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require this action become the law of the land. (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.
6. End Runaway Government Spending
Impose a statutory cap limiting the maximum annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. Since the "Invisible Depressions" of 1921 and 1946 were quickly eliminated and prosperity resurged after serious cuts in government spending and elimination of and cuts in some taxes . . . implement such measures for the next 20 years or until the deficit is eliminated and unfunded liabilities are funded. Consider making congress a part-time entity. (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 all unfunded liabilities are funded, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require this action become the law of the land. (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%)
Beans are nutritious, tasty and inexpensive. When you’ve got a gold mine, however, you don’t eat beans at every meal.
Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
p.s. Three obvious categories should be added to the bloggers' choices for their posting:
1. Contract from America
2. Economics
3. Checking upon Political Integrity
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