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It may sound paranoid, but what does he mean by “gone”?
It appears on the basis of this video and the audio released yesterday of Charles Schumer trashing the tea party, the Democrat strategy is to blame the Tea Party for Republicans’ resistance to come to the table and negotiate on the continuing resolutions and the debt ceiling. Fine. If they are going to blame us for holding our representatives feet to the fire, perhaps, it is time we actually did that.
Last week, when Rep. Gregg Harper stopped by the latest meeting of the MeridianTeaParty.com, it was clear that many of those in attendance were somewhat dissatisfied with some of Rep. Harper’s comments and his answers to our questions. When asked if he would vote for the next continuing resolution. He stated that he didn’t know for sure and that it depended upon what else was in the continuing resolution. For example, he explained, if the next C.R. contained a full defunding of Planned Parenthood or NPR, then he would find it hard to vote against it.
Rep. Harper tried to make the point that the budget situation didn’t happen overnight and that we couldn’t hope to fix it with one swift cut and immediately eliminate all of the deficit spending at once. However, the point Tea Party Members made to him was that while we understood his position, we also understood the fact that we cannot continue to spend money we do not have. A seasoned citizen even offered to give up some of his own pension if Congress would guarantee that the money would be paid against the Federal Debt. Rep. Harper rightly pointed out that doing this would only give Democrats the boldness to keep spending.
But the question that didn’t get asked or answered was the one that was probably most important: Would Rep. Harper stand firm on the debt ceiling and vote against raising it again? The dirty little secret is that standing their ground on raising the Debt Ceiling is the only weapon the Republicans have right now that can stop the runaway spending. To raise the debt ceiling, both the House and the Senate have to agree. Since the Republicans are only in control of the House, this gives them the ability to keep Democrat feet to the fire on cutting spending. A simple “No” vote on raising the debt ceiling will force Democrats to the table and get them to accept more dramatic cuts. This stance will probably be positioned as the “nuclear option” or some other idiotic phrase, but it’s really nothing more than growing a backbone and standing ground.
When it counted Tea Parties stood their ground and made a difference in the last elections. We knew going into this effort that the fix was going to take longer than just one election. Rep. Harper was correct about the fact that we cannot cure politicians’ addiction to spending overnight. What we can do overnight to find the brakes on this runaway train we call The Federal Budget. The debt ceiling is a perfect set of brakes. The question is whether the people we have representing us in Washington have the wherewithal to apply them.
In spite of what Harry Reid believes, the Tea Party is not going away anytime soon. In fact, on Thursday, March 31, 2011, the Tea Party Patriots will be holding a Continuing Revolution Rally on the East Side of the Capitol Building from noon to 1:30pm. While the Congress continues “business-as-usual” with their short term continuing resolutions, tea parties will be there to Continue The Tea Party Revolution and demand they make the tough decisions we sent them there to make.
It would be a good idea between now and tomorrow to make two phone calls:
- Rep. Gregg Harper – 202-225-5031 – Ask whether he supports raising the debt ceiling and/or the next continuing resolution.
- Speaker John Boehner – 202-225-0600 – Encourage him to hold the line on spending and live up to the mandate we gave him.
Caller Talking Points
- When calling Rep. Gregg Harper, tell them you are a member of MeridianTeaParty.com and thank him for his visit last week. When calling Speaker Boehner let his office know that you are a tea party member and that you support the concept of Fiscal Responsibility.
- I am calling to demand, as an American citizen, that House Republicans hold the line, and “NOT” raise the National Debt Ceiling, which will force the President and the entire Congress to make the hard cuts that are required to bring our nation’s economy back to health for our children and grandchildren.
- If Congress does not hold the line this year, and the ceiling is raised, they will be held responsible for the collapse of our economy, which is spiraling downward now.
- The voters will hold every House member responsible for their decisions, when given the opportunity to vote again. We do not have short memories.
- So I respectfully request that the Representative/Speaker makes this his main priority now! If he does, he will go down in history for his resolve and courage.
- If he supports holding the line on debt, ask him, along with other House Republicans, to go out and stand in solidarity with the Tea Party protesters on March 31. That will demonstrate to the nation that he and they, are serious about the pledges they took before the mid-term elections.
It’s time to remind Harry Reid that we haven’t gone anywhere and we don’t plan to for a very long time.
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the candidates that we sent up for the tea party are no different than the ones we had. i dont care what they have to defund – do it. cut off obama’s money to the libyan farce. no politician wants to call it like it is or give a yes/no answer to any question, but obama is a plant that has done more to bring this country down economically and finacially than any person in our history and all our guardians in washington are standing around w/ stupid written on their faces. why no body can see that the mideast “oil countries” are being transposed to “muslin fanatical leadership” when all this is over. then you will see this country brought down. this country runs on oil!!!!!!!!!!!!