Today being TAX day, I felt this needed its own thread..... Finally, after half a million votes from TEA Party supporters, here is the consensus of what we are requiring all future candidates in whichever party to agree to. (Hopefully, this will keep also keep future "Bush's" out of office.) http://www.thecontract.org/ The Contract from America 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%)
I noticed right away that these guys are ignorant on some of their issues. There is no govt. run health care currently in place or legislated to be repealed or replaced.
By titling it "Contract from America", is the Tea Party saying they are representative of the country as a whole?
They are. Check out the website. At the bottom, it is signed "The American People." No, fools, you don't represent me. You represent Republican agendas and talking points with a movement oriented entirely around false rhetoric. However, you are a great source of entertainment, so keep it goin'! The Daily Show and Colbert Report has been great the last few months.
Wow, I had to read this one twice. This sounds like something Stephen Colbert would come up with. What's next? Proposing that no bill may request more than $1776? Too rigid. Places have tried rev/spending caps before and they've failed miserably. Government run what? Pork spending is like a grain of sand in our hourglass of problems, but whatever. This sounds like a bunch of mostly ignorant shouting, really.
This is what you're going to require Republican candidates to agree to? That's odd, it wasn't too many days ago that you were claiming the Tea Party movement was not a Republican movement.
You are technically correct. But, anyone that thinks that the ultimate goal of Obama's is not Universal Single Payer System (aka, Government Run Health Care) is living in a total fantasy world. They reluctantly passed this watered down bill with the FULL understanding that once the natives calmed down--they would finish it off by passing a single payer system. And, please don't make me imbed the numerous YouTube videos proving this many times over. The only reason we don't currently have Gov. run HCR, is because some in his own party had some sense--mainly provided by the TEA Party movement. But, I am sure the TEA Partiers are the only ones that omit a few facts here and there.
Good catch. This is an error on my part. The TEA party is not for either party and I should not have misrepresented them. I will edit my original post.
one of the "non" leaders at the rally today -- Steve King: 'Some People In The White House' Would Fail Citizenship Test Rep. Steve King (R-IA) declared at an event hosted by Americans For Tax Reform that members of the Obama administration would fail the United States citizenship test, due to their lack of belief in a capitalist economy. "Even though there would be some people in the White House that would fail this test, if you look at the naturalization flash cards, if you want to become a naturalized American citizen...[the flashcard] will ask, 'What is the economic system of the United States?' Flip that flash card around, it says free enterprise, capitalist," said King, CNSNews reports. "I am not convinced that people in the White House understand it, let alone believe it, given some of the activities that we have seen," King said.
Oh yeah, honest mistake I'm sure. The Tea Party is not for either party, which is why they select such well-known people who are not associated with either party like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachmann to speak at their rallies and conventions, right?
