Tea Party Remarks

What follows is the text of my remarks at Orlando's Tea Party gathering at City Hall on April 15, 2009
***

There is a disconnect between our government and the people. It has been growing for more than the past 100 days… so it cannot all be laid at the feet of the current administration…

… and anger alone won’t get it done…

This is not a Republican / Democrat issue. This is an issue that should cut across party lines.

You will hear the argument that taxes have been higher in the past … and we survived…

I submit they have never been higher at any time in our nation’s history… and they are poised to go even higher.

Look at the signs all around here with the hidden taxes and taxes disguised as “fees” … Americans are taxed today as they have never been taxed in their history…and regulated to within an inch of their lives… meddling regulations are also a form of taxation and I urge you to find and support organizations like The Coalition for Property Rights and support them…

And these taxes and fees operate as a TAX ON AMBITION… dampening the entrepreneurial spirit that creates jobs and makes America unique among the nations of the world…

We are a taxed people. From birth to earth we are taxed, everywhere we turn…

All to support a government that at all levels has grown far, far beyond that envisioned by our Founding Fathers.

When this country was formed… the folks that did the fighting and dying for us wanted to make darn sure they weren’t replacing one form of tyranny for another. A distant English oppressor … for a local home grown oppressor…

They did that by drafting a constitution that made paramount the rights of individuals…

That document was a contract between the people and the government they proposed to create.

The plain meaning of our contract with our government has been distorted to match whatever the tax and spend adherents of big government want it to say.

The problem lies with us, not them…When we don’t pay attention government grows… exponentially…

When was the last time you heard any local politician run on a smaller government platform?

Three things you should come away with today:

1.) The Free Market is not evil

2.) Fiscal Responsibility is good; and

3.) Limited Government is what made America great…

FIRST

The attack on capitalism coming from Washington DC is an attack on ambition. The Free Market is a rough and tumble place. Failure is part of the equation… and every once in a while we have to be reminded that nothing goes up forever.

… But show me a Big Government solution anywhere in the world that has been able to compete with America’s Free Market System…

And please don’t point to Europe… those societies only function because America pays their defense budgets…

There is a reason that millions of people try to immigrate to the U.S. every year… and it isn’t because of our form of government…

It is for the opportunities that only a Free Market can offer… The ability to start from nowhere and go as high as your effort and talent can take you…

This is the land of innovation… the land of big thinkers who create jobs … the land where wealth is transformed into working capital and new industries are born…unless we take away all of the incentives … all of the “opportunity”;

… and then we are just one more state planned economy churning out products no one wants to buy based on five year programs developed by government employees with nothing at risk…

Again, an attack on the Free Market is an attack on ambition… a diminishment of the opportunities available to your children… and grandchildren …

And it must be resisted…

Will you resist it?



SECOND

The second thing I want you to take away from this gathering is a basic precept of the Tea Party Movement…

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY…

It is what we owe our children and grandchildren…

To live within our means …

And leave our nation in better shape than we found it…

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue…it is a citizenship issue…

Find the fiscally responsible candidates of any party and support them…

We owe it to our children…

Newt Gingrich estimates that every 21 year old American will pay an EXTRA $110,000 to $120,000 in taxes in their lifetime … JUST TO PAY THE INTEREST ON THE DEBT WE ARE RUNNING UP TODAY…

We have to stop spending our children’s future earnings…and learn how to live within our means…

We have to STOP THE SPENDING…

Will you do your part?


THIRD

And the third thing I want to leave you with is the concept of LIMITED GOVERNMENT

Our Founding Fathers granted specific enumerated powers to the Federal Government, and reserved the rest to the States.

That was the contract between the people of the United States and their government…

The government they envisioned was a protector and servant of the people, not their master. It was not a nanny state designed to redistribute income … it was designed for the common defense…so European powers didn’t pick us off one state at a time…

It was never intended to be this goliath that wants to intrude into every aspect of our lives…


So those are the three main points of this Tea Party Movement we celebrate on Tax Day…

1.) Though certainly imperfect, Free Markets are good, not evil…and are essential to the American experience.

2.) Fiscal Responsibility is the duty of every American … and certainly should be a promise extracted from every candidate no matter what party they are from…

3.) A government that governs least ... governs best… Limited Government means more freedom for Americans and more opportunity for our children and grandchildren…

Some of you might ask how we are going to get back to a smaller, fiscally responsible government that embraces Free Market principles as the embodiment of liberty for ordinary folks…?

You are going to have to go out there and actually campaign for the things you believe in… You have to come back to the next event on July 4th with five new believers in tow… and you should make sure they don’t all look like me…

The Black Middle Class is going to have opportunity snatched out from under them just as they start to reach for it…

THIS IS THEIR FIGHT TOO!

Hispanics… who hold the key to all future elections … are going to see the opportunities for which they came to this country lost before they can grab them for their kids…

THIS IS THEIR FIGHT TOO!

Host a coffee klatch meeting and invite your friends and business acquaintances in to discuss these three topics:

Free Markets
Fiscal Responsibility; and
Limited Government

Your neighbors need to see your passion… and understand that you are in this for their kids as well as your own…

This is a struggle for the next generation… when the bill comes due for all this spending in 10 years or so… guess who is going to pay it?

As I said before… every 21 year old American will pay an EXTRA $110,000 to $120,000 in taxes in their lifetime … JUST TO PAY THE INTEREST ON THE DEBT WE ARE RUNNING UP TODAY…

That is unconscionable…

That is wrong…

And we should do everything in our power to prevent it…

The big bills won’t come due on my watch… but the blame if we do nothing to stop it will certainly be on those of us gathered here…

Spread the word…

STOP THE SPENDING… AND

TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY…

God Bless.