Tea Party Patriots Chart a Bold Course

Tea Party’s “Contract With America” a good idea. The ideas include common-sense measures to increase transparency, government accountability, economic recovery, require a constitutional basis for legislation, stopping federal agencies from making end-runs around Congress, among other things.

I have been working to get one specific measure enacted for five years -- Imposing a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.
AFP has also been a leader in ending earmarks – having sponsored the Ending Earmarks Express national tour.

We may dicker over some aspects of the proposed “contract” but the 22 measures which may be proposed today are fairly all-encompassing.

Here are what I understand may be in the Tea Party Contract:
• Amending the constitution to require a balanced budget and a two-thirds majority for any tax hike.
• Permanently repealing all tax hikes scheduled to begin in 2011.
• Requiring every bill in Congress to be made public seven days before any vote can be taken and all government expenditures authorized by any bill to be easily accessible on the Internet before the money is spent.
• Requiring each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.
• Permitting all health insurance plans to be sold anywhere in the United States through the purchase of insurance across state lines. Allow small businesses and associations to pool together across state lines to buy insurance.
• Adopting 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.”
• Imposing a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.
• Allowing Americans to opt out of Social Security and Medicare and instead put those same payroll taxes in a personal account “they own, control and can leave to whomever they choose.”
• Preventing any regulation or tax on the Internet.
• Improving education by eliminating ineffective and wasteful programs, giving parents more choices from pre-school to high school and improving the affordability of higher education.
• Authorizing 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.
• Prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from using funds to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
• Creating a Blue Ribbon task force that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs.
• Blocking state and local governments that receive federal grants from exercising eminent domain over private property for the primary purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenues.
• Preventing the EPA from implementing costly new regulations.
• Placing a moratorium on all earmarks until the process is fully transparent. Also requiring a two-thirds majority to pass any earmark.
• Making all lawmaking regulators, including presidential appointed czars, be affirmatively approved by Congress and signed into law by the president.
• Audit the Federal Reserve System.
• Making sure the federal government does not bail out private companies. The government should also immediately divest itself of its stake in the private companies it owns from recent bailouts.
• Amending the constitution to require congressional term limits. No person shall be elected to the Senate more than twice or to the House of Representatives more than four times.
• Making all regulations “sunset” after 10 years unless renewed by congressional vote.
• Broadcasting all non-security meetings and votes on C-SPAN and the Internet.

This is something many of us can "sink our teeth into" and run with. Americans for Prosperity has been a leading organization pushing for spending limits which empower taxpayers, for ending earmarks and improving transparency, as well as stopping the EPA and FCC as well as other agencies from rogue activities like regulations which are end-runs around Congress.

We can roll up our sleeves and work together to get elements of this plan passed. It will require all of us on the Right to make it happen - and require that we check our egos at the door. After all, Ronald Reagan "It's amazing what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't care who gets the credit."

-- Peggy Venable, pvenable@afptx.org