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Buyer Beware! National retail sales
tax or US VAT (Value-Added Tax) proposals |
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Invest in the America which you want to create.
Cut your losses. Invest in limiting government. |
| See
also Glenn Beck's show on May 1 with many
participants about the Tax Day Tea Parties. |
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Suggested message below: If you do this,
the only new job you will create for us is to defeat you. We
may not be able to vote them out of power until 2010, but we can
let them know how we feel right now. |
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The Tax Day Tea Party protests were in 750+ cities on April 15.
Join us again on July
4. |
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Where is the nationwide Chicago Tea Party taxpayer revolt going?
Personal thoughts about a focus on state, local
and individual responsibility and sharing knowledge of what works well,
rather than keeping the focus on all the arrogant policy failures and
abuses of power and limits on government in Washington. Show that
there are viable alternatives to the creeping federal tyranny over
individuals and businesses as well as the authority of their state and
local officials. Stand up for the limits imposed by our
Constitution.. |
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Hundreds of people showed up for the first Chicago Tea Party
in February. See our photos
from the
event and various news videos, news reports, and other links. |
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The Chicago Tea Party. Thank you, Rick
Santelli of CNBC. We decided not to wait until July,
and were not surprised that GE and NBC seem to have tried to spike your
idea, instead of supporting it. We the people don't really need
NBC or MSNBC or the political class in Washington to tell us what to do
or think. |
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Please help with our research by state.
We're looking for more conservative and Republican links to share so
that more individuals can get actively involved to drive improvements at
the state and local level. |
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Thanks to the Heritage Foundation for calling to our
attention this
Washington Post graphic about the enormous projected budget deficits
for the next decade relative to the Bush years. If you are
wondering what all the Tax Day Tea Parties were about, this simple graphic is
one
good starting point. Keep in mind that the budget reality may
actually be even worse than these initial projections, and the impact of
the deficits is cumulative. The national debt projections
for the next decade are
therefore staggering. |
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April 24, 2009 - Congressional Democrats near agreement on budget -
Comment: Near agreement on how to ram through health care,
education, and very costly environmental changes
and other priorities by blocking any chance of a Republican filibuster. This
is yet another example of the partisan intent by Pelosi and Reid to abuse their
new power as fast as
they can, before people wake up to it.
Stand up again on
Memorial Day and July 4, as in
the Tax Day Tea Parties, against
this liberal insurgency. |
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February 11 update - We're now officially on
the road to serfdom as a $789 billion "deal" has been struck in
conference between the House and Senate versions of the "stimulus" plan.
This is just the first roadside bomb blast in this liberal insurgency.
It's not the end of the fight. The public will soon wake up to the
danger of unchecked federal power to spend us into a real financial
catastrophe. As one Democratic member of Congress observed in a
Fox News interview, this bill is just the "first bite of the apple" -
before the regular budget process unfolds over the months ahead.
Thus, he was not concerned that some pork and liberal initiatives got
left out this time. There's more to follow. |
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February 10, 2009 update - It's not over. As Tim Geithner's
testimony revealed today, there's still no clear plan for "TARP 2", and
there could be
another $1 or $2 trillion or more at stake soon, not to mention
other costly legislation after the "stimulus" bill is rammed through.
Voters need to
keep the pressure on their Senate and House members to rein in this
madness, rather than to rubber stamp it. This stimulus bill may
pass, but voters have to remain alert and vocal in opposition to such
atrocities. |
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January 31, 2009 update - Don't forget your governors!
An
AP story alleges that Republican governors support the Obama
"stimulus" plan just because some obviously need money and haven't
flatly refused to take it, or were lobbying in favor of a more effective
stimulus plan. Vermont is hardly a good example of Republican
support for the plan. It's the Democrat-led National Governors
Association which quickly bought into this "plan", but regardless of
party, the waste in the present bill is outrageous - and may soon hit
$900+ billion in the Senate version. There's already talk that
this may not be enough, either. Enough already!!! This
makes states too vulnerable to be a check on federal power.
Use the Republican
Governors Search tool to see what real Republican governors like
Mark Sanford of South Carolina are saying about the stimulus bill, and
the federal strings attached to any state money. |
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Invest a few minutes of your time. Here is a suggested action
which, regardless of political party sympathies or how you voted (or
not) in November, Americans should be able to take quickly before the
new $825 billion "economic stimulus" proposal and further TARP spending
moves forward. Together with TARP, this adds up to
$1.5 trillion in more debt,
no matter how you characterize it as an "investment". Nobody voted for this package in November.
Despite all of the talk by all of the candidates about the growing
recession during the long 2008 campaign, there was never discussion of
anything remotely similar to this proposal. There was no mandate
to create the mother of all federal spending programs, with more slow,
drawn-out pork cooked into it than a Southern barbecue. We have
gotten out of every recession within a short period of time. This
is no excuse to expand our national debt exponentially. |
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Look up your elected officials (links at right) in the US House,
Senate, and your governor, or even your mayor. If you are a
Republican, contact your state and local Republican party leadership, as
well as the Republican National Committee, Republican Governors
Association, and GOPAC to let them all know that you regard this as an
important and urgent issue on which to take a firm stand. |
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Find their "Contact Us" form, office address, fax, phone, and email
address on their website. |
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Tell them very clearly that you will actively work to defeat them,
as well as vote against them, in the next election cycles in 2010 and
2012 and beyond if they vote
for this new "stimulus" plan. Let them know that you
are paying attention, and will have a long memory.
Don't accept
trillions of dollars in additional debt for all Americans.
Don't just shrug it off as politics as usual in Washington. You
are the ones who will be stuck with this new debt for generations to
come. |
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The original suggestion below from January 2009 has
obviously been overtaken by events, including other massive spending and
thousands of "pork" projects and huge plans for budget and debt
increases. |
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Suggested message - but draft whatever
you like. Just do it. |
| "As a
taxpayer and active voter, I pledge to work vigorously for your defeat
in the next election, and to invest in that effort, if you support the
proposed $825 billion "economic stimulus" plan.
I am not convinced that this is the right way to deal with the current
recession.
Hard-working Americans like myself have soon led this
country out of all past recessions. We are the ones who create
productive jobs and greater prosperity in this country - not more
government spending.
We are the ones who will have to pay for such
initiatives through debt which this country cannot afford.
If you do this, or some variation on it, you can count
on me to work very hard to defeat you and others like you who are
jeopardizing my future. That's the new job which you will be
creating for me.
This is not a change which I believe in. I will
pay attention to what you do, and have a long memory." |
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Why should you take the time to do
this? |
| In
simple round numbers, there are around 300 million people in this
country. Around a quarter of them aren't old enough to vote -
roughly 75 million. Around 58 million voted for McCain, and 67
million for Obama. That's 125 million voters, for a total of 200.
That leaves around 100 million who still have an important stake in the
future of America, but who didn't vote for either candidate.. |
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Elected officials may not pay much attention to those 100 million who
didn't vote, on the assumption that they won't vote again in the future.
They should, however, pay attention to the 125 million
who voted, and especially the nearly 60 million who voted Republican
regardless of any interest they had in Obama's candidacy or any doubts
about McCain's. When the time came to act by voting in secret,
they stuck with McCain. |
| In
short, 60 million is still a lot of people. Let's assume that
the Obama supporters will not challenge what the new leadership is doing
(at least at first). They're still on the euphoric honeymoon.
There are still a further 100 million Americans
out there in our communities who may be very skeptical about the
government spending $1.5 trillion
dollars in the name of "economic stimulus" and somehow "creating
and saving jobs". |
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No product warranty applies to this
government spending plan. It's all at your own risk. |
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Thank you, Daniel Hannan, MEP for the South East of England.
His stinging rebuke to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the
European Parliament has justifiably gone viral. Many Americans
clearly share these sentiments about the reckless spending in Congress
as a threat to economic recovery.
See the videos, including
various interviews on Fox News (Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto, Glenn Beck)
since his conservative comments also resonate here, especially with the
"tea party" revolt.
Use our Conservative Search
tool to see what others have been saying about Daniel Hannan. For
example,
Rush Limbaugh commented on March 27 and earlier on his
March 25 program |
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Caveat emptor! This isn't a conservative versus liberal or
Republican versus Democrat issue. This is a
question of whether you are prepared to personally accept the enormous
additional debt burden which this plan will impose on all Americans for
many years - without any assurance that it will actually lead to faster
economic recovery or greater prosperity.
Regardless of what economists or political leaders say
in their sales pitch, would you spend $15,000 of your own money
to buy something untested just because the salesman told you it was a
great deal? That was just the initial stimulus plan cost.
Now add in all the other new federal spending, so that it is like buying
something for well over $100,000 with no assurance that it would work
as promised.
Would you buy it without any warranty that it will
work as intended, or else you get your money back?
Why would you buy the Obama - Pelosi - Reid
spending plans on blind faith?
The only warranty that you are getting with this
"plan" is that they will keep spending more and more of your money
until they can finally claim to have produced something of some value
for you, even if there is still no clear proof of it. That's
one heck of a consumer protection plan. They
will then claim to have accomplished something - but you will get stuck
with the entire bill. Would you gladly invest $100,000+ up front
for something which produces perhaps $1,000 in short-term benefits for
you, but will drive up your long-term costs (and for your children and
grandchildren)? This is insanity. |
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Do you want to be led by the nose by
manipulative politicians? Or will you stand up to them? |
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Even a donkey is smart enough to soon figure
out that dangling a little carrot in front of its nose is just an
exploitative and manipulative trick, rather than a real reward.
Americans are being played for suckers by this administration.
People are being conned into giving up their power and resources to
government. You can't fool all of the people
all of the time. Many are starting to wake up from this
utopian fantasy of what unchecked government power can do for them, and
are realizing what a nightmare it could soon become for America, and the
harm which it could do to everyone. The siren song that 95% of
taxpayers won't have to pay for all this new spending is intuitively as
false a promise as that dangling carrot. |
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"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." As
the old saying goes, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
Or, to put it more crudely, "It's time to kick their ... "
There may have been 67 million Americans last
November who bought into the teleprompter-driven image of Obama and
other Democrats as the magic solution to all their aspirations for
change, but wishing that it was true will not make it so. They
were led by the nose with a few dangling carrots. Meanwhile, there
are at least 100 million non-voters, plus 58 million McCain voters,
who clearly remained skeptical.
No matter how many of the Obama faithful continue
to believe in his agenda, there are already more than enough
Americans out there to stop this cold in 2010. We can
already make it clear to our members of Congress that
we fully intend to do so. That's
the only hope we have - to soon convince members of Congress that their
own careers will end if they continue to support these policies. |
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The 600,000+ turnout in 750+ cities for
the Tax Day Tea Parties was a good start to get their attention.
That was up from 15,000+ in 40 cities in February (after just one week
of preparation). We need to keep growing the pressure.
Spread the word. Tell your friends.
Stand up again on Memorial Day and
July 4. It's no
surprise that the "political class" didn't like these Tea Parties, and
tried to denigrate them. They never expected to see so much
organized opposition to their reckless agenda within the first 100 days.
They are still hoping that it will soon be fragmented into special
interests to attack, or simply fade away. As a genuine grassroots
"we the people" volunteer movement, there's no easy target for them to
attack.
We don't need to rally behind individual candidates
for 2010 or 2012 yet. We just need to stand up for ourselves, and
make it clear that "We won't be fooled again." Polls
already suggest that is happening. |
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Rasmussen Reports - Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Buyer's
remorse since the election. Despite personal charisma, spin, and
high hopes for change, people are waking up to the harmful Obama agenda.
Generic Congressional Ballot - Comment: The obvious point
is that active voters are roughly split 40-40, with 20% uncommitted to
either party. Last time, frustration favored the Democrats.
Not likely in 2010.
April 24, 2009 - Election 2010: Pennsylvania Republican Senate Primary
- Comment: A wake-up call for Senator Arlen Specter.
He's losing dramatically in early poll results. Time for
selection out. On the other
side of the aisle, Senator Chris Dodd is also facing a backlash among
Connecticut voters.
April 21, 2009 - 60% say government has too much power, too much money
- Comment: Note the difference among the "Political Class", and
especially relative to entrepreneurs.
April 20, 2009 - 51% view Tea Parties favorably, Political Class
strongly disagrees - Comment: Not bad, given all the national
liberal media distortion, scorn, or disregard for the Tea Parties as
news. This is just for starters - before many people really
understand what is driving the movement (see above). |
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