STARVE THE FEDS

It’s amazing how a near-spontaneous gathering of 500 people not knowing where things were going turned into a march of 1.5 million on Washington, full of people united on telling the government exactly where we wanted to go. I fear the subsequent marches on Washington will dilute the cause, regardless of good intentions, because the whole let’s-march-on-Washington ethic has already been exhausted, and the 9/12 March will never be replicated. I’m all for the FairTax (April 15) and the 2nd Amendment (April 19), but we are not serial Washington marchers. They got the message; they just choose to ignore it. Protesting is now futile. Action is king.

Lest we be tempted to think that raising our voices does no good, we have the luxury of the Tea Party’s one year history to reflect over. This is not to gloat about what we accomplished, but to serve as a guide to us that need encouraged to speak up and let people know you won’t shut up and take what’s given to you. We never go down without a fight. Let’s not choose to refrain from fighting like we have in years past.

Enough of the waxing poetic, let’s just bring up a list of items that the Tea Party movement (and similar movements in like spirit) have had direct or indirect influence on America and the world:

• First and foremost, the health care bill has been STALLED and may be DEAD. We are one legislative trick away form totally killing the totalitarian spirit of our government.
• Although the guy has disappointed us some, the election of Scott Brown gave politicians the spanking they truly needed. We just had to say “Number 41″ and everyone knew what that meant.
• Doug Hoffman gave all our hard work a shining big result to boost our confidence and to show the criticizers that we’re not messing around. Had he just garnered a paltry 1-4% of the vote like most third party candidates do, our movement would have been dead.
• The August 2009 town hall meetings were also Last Stand Battles – again, had we failed, we’d have totalitarian health care without a whimper.
• ACORN and the SEIU are being watched and prodded over incessantly. Before this past year, they just did what they wanted.
• Van Jones had to go underground. He’s still trying to find a way back in, but that bastard will be watched like crazy.
• Mark Levin’s book ”Liberty and Tyranny” was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for countless weeks, and the mainstream media tried to ignore or discredit the book. Of course, this leads to every talking head wanting to write a book (especially Hannity), which will get me tired of this concept real quick. However, Levin showed that people really do want to know conservatism.
• Glenn Beck is probably the only talk show host which makes people willingly get a notepad and pencil and take notes like we’re in history class. And his ratings whip the asses of those other news shows that like cracking teabagging jokes.
• 9/12 groups are holding book club meetings over books such as “The 5000 Year Leap”. Man, I need to stop by Barnes and Noble.
• Sarah Palin has been perfection for a few years now, but not even she can escape legitimate criticism from conservatives. If this doesn’t prove we’re not blind to people, then logic is hopeless with them.
• The government can threaten us with $5,000 fines for not answering intrusive “census” forms that want to know when we leave and get home from work, and we can still refuse to fill them out.
• On a personal note, the movement has inspired me to run for office, learn to shoot at firing ranges, and homeschool our future children.
• The government will not use direct speeches to go over our heads as parents to lecture to our children. They went to a generic “Plan B” speech and will continue to do so, although Organizing For America is trying to get students to be political interns for Obama currently.

There’s much more, of course, but I need to get out and do some campaigning. Don’t stop believing!

I am semi-stunned in disbelief that the Obama administration is deliberately trotting out its embarrassment of a stimulus plan one year after it passes, with some half-assed message about how it saved the economy. I thought by now he’d try to bury it underground and slam his JOBS JOBS JOBS down our throats.

I think one year is enough time to give someone a chance, no? Hence it has been over one year since this disasterpiece passed legislation and signed by our president as some monumental achievement, and many are still saying now what they had been saying then. Unemployment is up, and our confidence is pretty much shot to the point where an imminent collapse has me considering yanking my retirement funds away from the stock market. Our predictions rang true in the general sense, the Obama administration’s predictions have rang false. Scoffing at his remarks is almost becoming the new national pasttime.

Keep in mind, that a February 17, 2009 passage of this bill led to the February 27, 2009 birth of the Tea Party as we know it today. We know Obama’s “Stimulus Plan” as “The Last Straw”; a beginning of a country’s freefall that rendered us helpless, until we took our gumption and decided to fight back – first with words, then with face-to-face confrontation, then us coming to them instead of waiting for them to come to us, and now hitting the polls like a lifelong welfare recipient makes damn sure he picks up his check (except we have direct deposit now, so he or she can sit on his ass 24 hours a day instead of 23).

Let it be known though, that the tried and untrue “stimulus plan” is not the only idea that ceases to work when repeated ad nauseum. I’m tired of Newt Gingrich wanting to do a “Contract With America II” like this is some rehash of the “Republican Revolution” of 1994. You had your chance buddy; now get the hell out of the way. You are NOT going to fuck this up for all of us. The so-called Revolution of 1994 led to the Throw The Dumbasses Out in 2006 and 2008. This was still back in an age when we were still fooled into thinking the “D” and “R” labels still meant something. That’s all gone now. All an “R” means now is that we’ll pick you apart much more closely and ask questions until you collapse so that you might stand a chance of being labeled a true conservative that’s looking to protect our Constitution. Talking the tax cut sweet talk is not enough. If you haven’t learned that now, then sit down as a favor to your country, and let the rest of us handle it.

I respect my elders who have paid their dues, but a track record is all we got for the experienced ones, and solid beyond blacksmith principles for us newbies that want our turn. I can NOT trust John McCain as a politician, though if I was military I’d want him on my side any day. I can NOT trust Mitt Romney to step anywhere near Washington as anything but a civilian, because even though he almost singlehandedly saved the Salt Lake City Olympics from reputational ruin, he also allowed Massachusetts universal health care to see the light of day. I do NOT trust Mike DeWine to not Gang-of-14 us into a compromise in which we lose and they win.  Although I love her dearly (politically), I remain skeptical about Sarah Palin’s $100,000 fee for a much-hyped Tea Party Convention, when Neal Boortz charges zero. I forgive her for campaigning for McCain, because I too would have to thank him for bringing her out into the spotlight. Her PAC is lining the pockets of campaign coffers for those like Rob Portman – a decision that may have hastened Tom Ganley’s decision to abandon his U.S. Senate run and try his hand at OH-13 for the House of Representatives.

I respect traditional thinking, but I don’t respect old thinking – especially if the old thinking has already failed us once or twice. As long as we all stay true to our principles individually, regardless of our differences of beliefs – even in the same Tea Party organization – we cannot fail. If we don’t give in, we will not fail. No matter who claims to be for the Tea Party but whistles their own tune when they go back to Washington, our principles and our will are the only concepts we can count on to weed out the pretenders. It is up to ourselves to see that we don’t blow Election Year 2010. This is not our fight to concede.

A closed mouth gathers no feet. It’s better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. It’s better to be seen and not heard.

Yet it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. People don’t respond to gentle nudges anymore; you have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll have their strict attention.

Other than one outlying vociferous yell from conservatives back in 2007 when Congress was considering amnesty for illegal immigrants, we already had been quiet. We were way too quiet. Anyone that accuses us of being too quiet while George W. Bush was wreaking havoc on government spending was one-hundred percent correct. The spending could have been excusable – two wars and 9/11 aren’t exactly on every President’s agenda when they take office – but it was still spending more than could be bought without a plan to pay ahead on debt principal so that we could buy up other countries’ assets like Russia and China are doing now.

I don’t see the logic in being quiet during Obama’s administration in order to equal the quiet we gave Bush just so we give the two “equal treatment”. Ditto for the 2004, 2006, and 2008 Congress. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Even if we’re slow to right the ship, we’re still going to right the damn ship. In fact, waiting too long only justifies moving more quickly to make up for lost time.

First, we called our Congressmen. It worked for Amnesty 2007, surely it would have to work again. We figured all we had to do is give Congress a piece of our mind and that would settle things. Then the big bailouts started. Despite our phone calls pleading with them not to pass the “$700 billion bailout” bill (which was renamed “TARP” afterward), it still passed. I still remember that day as they only day I stayed awake at night with my eyes glued to the C-SPAN channel. My heart dropped that night. Calling didn’t work.

We’ve also written letters and emails. We were lucky to get generic form letters back, especially those that never addressed our concerns. It was almost as if we should have felt so privileged that we should frame the letters on our wall. We didn’t want souvenirs, we wanted answers. Congressmen at that time were like baseball umpires: if you didn’t know their name, they were probably doing a pretty good job. The negative conditional also applied: if you knew your Congressman’s name, it wasn’t because you thought he was a big hot rock star – it’s because he voted against your wishes. This was our first major token of evidence that arrogance hung in the air of Washington, D.C..

We started holding our own protests. Our protests adopted the “Tea Party” name after the CNBC reporter Rick Santelli loudly suggested it on live TV in front of the Chicago Stock Exchange. We marched, even though we didn’t know the first thing about protesting. I know I sure didn’t know a damn thing about it. Protesting was for kooky people who were too dedicated to one cause and ignored others. Protesting was shouting out in the air in hopes that someone outside the protest would appreciate our passion. Protesting was a great release, but felt pretty empty afterward. If we wanted an emotional hangover, we might as well have gotten drunk instead and took the physical hangover as a package deal.

The August town halls were it. Congress was going out of session for the month and were planning on meeting their constituents back home. The health care debacle was on an artificial deadline to be passed, and it didn’t even come close. This was possibly our last opportunity to let our voices be heard, since we were being ignored otherwise.

What wildfire! To hear the proclamations of citizens who had a previous dirty habit of staying quiet too long was beautiful music to behold. To know that many congressmen were locating the nearest emergency exit as though their plane was going to crash was the comedown from arrogance that was much needed. The number one complaint at the time, which I still hear and read to this day on many occasions, is that we were doing too much shouting. We weren’t being civil. We were supposedly shouting down politicians before they could finish their sentences, when in reality, the shouting was of those who could not, and would not take any of their bullshit anymore. It was like a parent cutting off protests from their kids. This time we were the parents, and the Congressmen needed the scolding. I submit that under those conditions, shouting was absolutely necessary. Good on those who did. Not everyone shouted, mind you; there were plenty that wanted to air out their concerns followed by wild applause and cheering. If that’s what it took to get the attention of our elected politicians, then so be it. August 2009 was a banner month, and shouting we did. Quiet doesn’t work here in times like these; not anymore.

And yet, there are those statists that can’t seem to keep quiet to save their lives. Barack Obama is a great example. I’ll never forget his statements about suggesting that someone’s 100-year old grandmother with a zest for life should take a painkiller instead of getting heart surgery, or when blew his load too quickly on the Cambridge police whom he claimed “acted stupidly” when arresting a Harvard professor. Every time that guy mentions the city of Las Vegas, their tourism industry takes such a dip that even Harry Reid is telling him to shut the hell up.

Obama does not realize that every time he or someone else opens their mouth about how they’re going to get health care done, that they are killing jobs just by talking about the health care bill(s). They could plan on not passing this thing all along and just plan to talk about it just set off the illusion that they’re making progress – it doesn’t matter. The absolute uncertainty that the talk creates is enough for companies to hold off on hiring anyone until they see what happens. It’s a similar concept with banks – any bank worth their salt knows to really tighten lending until they see people start paying off loans again instead of defaulting. Any person in position of power just has to utter the words “Health Care”, “Cap and Trade”, and “Card Check” and that’s all a company needs to hold off hiring anyone. Why hire anyone to play the game when the rules are going to change; especially on how much taxes will be placed on the employer for each employee?

Would you buy a car or a house if the government is making noise about charging extra taxes on home and car owners sometime in the future? Maybe you’d buy a car, but only if you absolutely needed one. The auto industry would fall flat, as well as the housing industry. If $8,000 tax credits would persuade people to start buying homes again, then surely any whispers of tax increases would scare people away from buying anything. It’s the same deal with employers and employees. We’ll never see a recovery until we are absolutely certain we won’t be penalized for doing so.

Words from the powerful deceptive types also wreak so much harm on our military. To know that wars are completely politicized is an absolute tragedy. It’s ok to oppose the Iraq war if it helps you get elected, but to have your Vice President take credit for the troop surges and success? I’m all for American success, regardless of the administration. I just couldn’t imagine being part of a military that’s being used for political whims. They keep America safe for the citizens that appreciate them, and for the politicians that take them for granted and use them to make themselves look better.

Someone also once said that he didn’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. He wanted them to get out of the way so he and his people can clean up the mess. If by “cleaning up the mess”, you mean “spending us into communistic oblivion”, well, he may have a point there.

Screw quiet.

I don’t mean literally choke, I mean your ideas. When I say “your” I mean those of you whose ideas totally disregard the cost of such ideas. If we didn’t need cost, we wouldn’t need money or accounting. Therefore, if you hold disregard for cost or money, then you must be willing to work for free.

Do you plan on raising the debt ceiling to further all time highs? Do you even understand the consequences of unfunded liabilities? Do you even know what an unfunded liability is? Are you aware that private companies cannot have unfunded liabilities such as pension plans due to ERISA laws?

What is your plan for paying for all your ideas? Is it a fee per service, or will you raise the taxes of everyone in your district? How much waste are you willing to cut? Are you willing to cut any spending?

If you’re going to raise taxes, why are you against a flat tax or FairTax? Why this progressive tax system? What measures would you enact to stop the wealthy from moving their money away or underground because you’re taxing them to death? Do you even know a progressive tax system disincentivizes working harder and smarter, because people know when they’ll hit the next highest tax bracket? Do you know that a progressive tax system rewards people for poverty and laziness, and punishes those who provide for themselves and their families?

You have to prove to me that taxation does not equate theft. The burden of proof will always be on you, because I will never voluntarily vote in another tax increase on any level until our elected officials demonstrate a track record of not wasting the funds. So far, that list is only limited to my local township trustees. Anyone that is looking to cut the salaries of or considering laying off firefighters and law enforcement shall damn well prove to the people that no money is going to waste if they are considering a cut to the public safety.

Our tax refunds are not enough to keep us quiet. Eliminating the automatic paycheck deductions would be a great start. We should have private options to ugly unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. Instead, there’s noise about the government seizing all private retirement funds like Argentina did.

I’m seriously considering keeping my retirement funds at home in the form of precious metals locked away in a safe somewhere. If government spending continues to increase with no plans to pay the debt off, then it’s inevitable that they’ll come after money that isn’t theirs and use the force of law to get it. It’s just like the health care debacle – you can tell me all you want that there will be no death panels, but as soon as it’s time to pay the piper and you are forced to cut costs, someone out there is going to determine who lives and who dies in order to stick to the budget. Whether they embrace that fact or not is irrelevant. If it passes, it will happen. When we run out of money, we must live up to the moral expectation of our conscience to either seek more income and/or cut our spending. When the government runs out of money and simultaneously refuses to cut spending, it’s inevitable – they will come after our money.

I don’t have time for denial anymore. I may avoid the problem from time to time just so I can maintain my sanity and I can live freely and socialize with people without them seeing me go off the deep end, but I cannot allow time for denial. If it’s true that the national debt cannot mathematically be paid off with status quo methodology, then it’s put up or shut up time. Short leash, big stick, speak loudly, be heard. Choose to ignore us, go right ahead, it’s a free country. We’ll be sure to give you more of an opportunity to ignore us from either your couch or from the private sector, because we will not allow you the privilege in serving the public sector ever again, assuming our sanity and reason remains intact.

Money is the ultimate in accountability. Money puts limits of how much of any particular item we can allow ourselves to purchase. Limited capital forces prioritization of items. Except for defense abroad, defense at home, or keeping the peace at home – the rest is incidental. What’s your plan for covering these costs? No plan? If money is no object, then we hope your idea chokes upon implementation. It’s sad that our citizens will have to suffer as a result of purposeful government waste and error. Shame.

I’ve been hanging back. I’ve continued to learn as much as possible, even after hitting the inevitable point to where one may think that they have learned all there is to learn, and the stuff coming out are just recycled versions of recent history.

People, however, are turning around. Mainstream media articles are leaking out some articles here and there that make the administration not look good. No matter how much Obama resists criticism, there’s going to be much more of it, and no amount of executive orders will stop it, no matter how Putin-like he’d like to be.

As much of us already are, we’re becoming the “go to” people I’ve hoped we’d all become. Those that are now seeing the light are turning to us for guidance, and trust our instincts no matter how quietly or loudly they express their gratitude for doing so. It’s nice to see that people can’t be fooled permanently for an indefinite period of time, and although it is tempting not to, I forgive them for not seeing this earlier. Let’s hope this turnaround isn’t too little too late.

Tax season is a great example of this. This may be the first year that the American mainstream is picking up on the idea that the “Earned Income Credit” is just political talk for “Welfare Payment”. It becomes more apparent when my fiancee notices that those who choose not to work for a living are receiving $6,000 tax “refunds” while those who are responsible are lucky to receive $1,000 back from what the government has taken from our paychecks throughout the year.

Yes, I said “fiancee”. I asked her to marry me a couple weekends ago, and she said yes. I must also say that we live in interesting times when a numberphobic person such as she asks me about the income tax consequences of getting married. If that’s not the federal government invading our daily lives, I don’t know what is.

Our president isn’t ignoring what we have to say; he hears it well and is soundly rejecting it. He and Pelosi are still promising the health care debacle. Crap and Trade is included in Obama’s Land of a Thousand Deficits budget proposal, even if it hadn’t passed Congress yet. To be irresponsible with money and accounting in the most powerful leadership position in the world is immoral. To reject fiscal responsibility in the face of reason in order to spite us is absolutely frightening. That’s one step closer to tyranny and enslavement, no matter how one looks at it.

I’ve said it since the big bailout mistakes of 2008 – I’d rather attempt to survive one gigantic economic crash than to wither away over a slow drawn out panic that now stretches over a year long. We’re no closer to recovery, no matter who tries to fool us otherwise. I don’t see hope for any recovery as long as anti-business policies are touted and threaten to take hold, even if the policies end up being defeated. The cloud of business uncertainty is enough to keep businesses from expanding and committing to their home bases. In a country where we bail out banks selectively so they can become even too much bigger to fail, take over automobile companies, set rules for executive pay, propose raising of taxes from every corner, where’s the hope? Who in their right mind would put their money here instead of Switzerland under these circumstances? Who in their right mind would choose penalizing Swiss banks for being the escape route instead of creating a desirable economic base that no one would feel compelled to escape from?

Only a liberal would raise taxes in the United States, and then chide companies who move overseas to lower tax rates as companies who “get tax incentives for moving offshore”. In other words, instead of matching or competing with the other countries’ rates, we berate those who try to breathe some economic sense into their companies. Well, I would move away too.

It’s the same mentality that would punish Texas for cutting taxes and capping malpractice suit awards instead of going with what works.

It’s been over a year since the big bailouts started, and we’re not the better for it. It takes one untimely yank of a thread by a country such as China who may choose not to invest in our debt anymore, or the housing market collapsing further when the tax breaks expire. There’s going to be one straw that breaks this camel’s back, and the ensuing crash would be the crash that should have happened in mid-September 2008. We could be over a year into the recovery from that crash. Instead, we’re still waiting on that crash.