Tea Party Patriots welcomes new Members to Congress
November 19, 2012 at 3:53 pm in News by Dustin Siggins 21 Comments
On Friday, Tea Party Patriots held its second freshman orientation brunch for newly elected Members of Congress. Approximately 10 new Members attended, and three Tea Party-minded veterans gave them and over 100 Tea Party Patriot State and Local coordinators advice on how to stand on principle in 2013.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) was first. Jordan, who has been a close ally of the Tea Party Patriots, spoke strongly about tax reform and spending cuts. He also explained how Members of Congress sometimes need the kind of aggressive discipline his high school wrestling coach provided to him. When I asked him about details on how he envisions tax reform, Jordan said he supports eliminating loopholes solely to lower rates – essentially, that additional revenue should only come from economic growth, not through tax code changes that raise the tax burden on Americans.
Next was Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), who spoke about the institutionalized thinking in Washington. He talked about his push for zero-based budgeting, and legislation he introduced – and the House passed – that is being held up by the Senate.
Third, but not least, was Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Paul talked about zero-based budgeting and inefficiencies in the federal budget. He also spoke about how Republicans and Democrats should compromise on spending cuts, insofar as Republicans should agree to cut inefficient spending in the Defense Department (he referenced Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) new report on the subject) while Democrats agree to reform entitlements. He also pointed out that Democrats are being dishonest on the Bush tax cuts – extending them is not a tax cut for the wealthy. It is extending current policy.
The Members-elect wandering in and out weren’t as recognizable as Jordan, Paul, and Gohmert, but on his way out the door, I asked newly elected Congressman Doug LaMalfa (CA-1) what kind of deal he would support, if any, to raise the debt ceiling. Rep.-elect LaMalfa said he was hesitant to say anything supportive of raising the ceiling, but that any increase would have to include “real reform,” including a significant Balanced Budget Amendment.
Also around was Member-elect Doug Collins from Georgia, who attended with his wife and press secretary. Rep.-elect Collins only stopped by briefly, but in a follow-up e-mail said he “look[s] forward to working with Tea Party members in Georgia and across the nation to reduce our debt, scale back the size of government and finally balance a federal budget.”
The Tea Party is taking a lot of heat in the mainstream media after this month’s elections, but these new Members are in the same mold as Paul, Mike Lee, Tim Scott, and other conservatives swept into office in 2010. They are the new generation set to take on responsibility in Congress, a generation dedicated to making sure the future of America is as bright as her past.
What they should be speaking about is the woefully weak leadership we’ve had.
We need a stronger voice.
Paul Ryan should be the next Speaker of the House.
If we do not change leadership, we should not expect any change to what’s been happening in Congress the past two years.
i could not agree more. Weak GOP leadership in the house is NOT what we need. Half the country rejected obama/reid/pelosi’s imposition of socialist initiatives. That is not what we want or what this country needs. We need leaders in congress like Ryan, Graves, and Dr. Broun to defend the Constitution and the people.
Mark:
You take an interesting approach to reationalize the Republican/TP defeat on election day.
Factually, you are almost correct that half of the country rejected Obama, et al. The fact of the matter is that LESS THAN HALF of the country rejected Obama, et al. The fact of the matter is that MORE THAN HALF of the country accepted Obama, et al!!!
I could be wrong, but in the long and storied history of this country, 50% plus one (of the votes cast) rules the question.
The GOP leadership in the house ISN”T weak! Their position is weak and we all know that you can’t bargin from a position of weakness. The electorate had a choice to elect Romney and his policies – it didn’t!!!! The electorate had a choice to put Republicans in charge of the Senate – it didn’t!!!! The electorate had the choice to increase the strength of the Republican’s in the house – instead, the R’s lost seats!
You close by envoking the Constitution and the people! Well, the Constitution has been applied and adhered to and the voice of the people has been heard. Why is it you can’t be a “Patriot” and accept the will of the people as it was heard under a properly and duly constituted election. Could it be that you only envoke the constitution when it’s convenient to your argument! That doesn’t sound very “Patriotic” to me! To me it sounds more immature and adolesent!
It seems clear to me. But, I am using some experience most people probably didn’t have. I worked on several campaigns for Congress, and a couple for governor. I am asuming that the political machines are similar.
Chris Christi sabotaged the election. That is clear to me. The most likely reason seems to be, if Romney wins the election, Christi can never become president. If Christi doesn’t sabotage the election, Romney wins. Christi publicly chastising Romney, then in the next motion sucking up to Obama, caused a 5-point swing. That 5-point swing gave the election to Obama.
So, I don’t see any reason to compromise and cave in to the Democrats. The election was close enough for one person’s actions to swing it the way most beneficial to their ambitions, assuming any career politician would like to achieve the top political office available, given a practical expectation.
All this defeatist talk from you seems out of place, given the actual facts.
We’re in a strong enough position to make some changes. We can select the next Speaker of the House.
The past two years, the Speaker has been woefully weak. That needs to change. If we do not change the Speaker, nobody should expect any change to what’s been happening to previous two years.
The next Speaker should be Paul Ryan.
We need to get behind Ryan.and put him in as Speaker.
We are not a “winner take all” government. If we were, I’d be in the underground resistance by now. 49.4% of voters looked at the Obama name and voted for someone else. Obama received almost 7 million fewer votes in 2012 than 2008. That’s a first– a president reelected with fewer votes than his election. (I can guarantee the Dems are wringing their hands over that one in the background of course). So Obama’s popularity is waning. It just didn’t wane fast enough.
R.T.:
I don’t know what you mean by “winner take all” government. What i said was:
“I could be wrong, but in the long and storied history of this country, 50% plus one (of the votes cast) rules the question.
I stand by what I said!! If you choose to arbitrarily change the wording to imply a different meaning, that’s your problem.
Whether he is or is not more popular now than he was in 2008 is a moot point! He has run his last race. Popularity or concerns with the base (for all intents and purposes) no longer matter. Based upon that truth, I view your comment about his popularity as another feeble attempt at rationalizing to find a positive out of a very negative situation.
The Republican Party (and by extension the TP), in my view, would do better to focus on a message that the centrist and independents will rally around. Hating Obama wasn’t enought to beat him and it certainly isn’t going to slow him down for the next 4 years.
If you want a positive to focus on. 2014 will be a better year for the Republicans. Fespite the turmoil they are now experiencing, In an off year election, there will be between 20 to 25% less voters and the “out of power” party generally benefits from that reduced turnout. If the TP will focus on “SANE” candidates, they should do well.
Joe, you continually ignore the fact that Chris Christi sabotaged the election. Christi publicly chastised Romney, and in the very next motion sucked up to Obama. That caused a 5-point swing and gave Obama the election. To verify this, look at the polling numbers from the day before Christi sabotaged the election up to election day. You’ll see a 5-point swing.
Without Christi sabotaging the election, Romney wins.
Let’s acknowledge that fact, realize that we are actually in a very strong position, and act accordingly.
Our leadership in Congress has been woefully weak. It hasn’t been representative of the actual strength we have. If we don’t change that leadership, we can expect no change in the direction of our government. We know the intent and direction of the Demcorats. We know our strength. We know what we want done in government.
Let’s move forward.
Paul Ryan should be our next Speaker of the House.
We need to get behind Paul Ryan and make the changes necessary to put our government back on the course of survival and take it off the suicidal course it’s on now.
The Balanced Budget Amendment opens the door for a Constitutional Convention (which the most liberal progressives) have been dreaming about for some time. It has a real serious potential to deal a death-blow to the Republic. Why couldn’t the Republicans offer their own balanced budget (they have controlled the house since 2010) without the amendment process? And would a BBA guarantee such spending is constitutional, if not (and it won’t)….. doesn’t that go against the stated principles of the TPP? ( i.e. Fiscal Responsibility and Limited Constitutional Government).
A Constitutional Convention has long been promoted by the Tea Party Patriots/Jenny Beth Martin. Why are they trying to open Pandora’s Box and further jeopardize the Republic? The risk is monumental…. research it. The entire Constitution could end up re-written should a con-con take place. One crisis (i.e. false flag event) could create a further tailspin of tyranny that radically counters our current Constitution.
‘The Patriot Act’ sat idly by for years waiting for an ‘event’ (most of it authored by Joe Biden in 1995). It has gutted the 4th amendment. The Tea Party (with it’s caucus, led at the time by Michelle Bachmann) pushed for it’s renewal along with 44 ‘tea party caucus’ republicans. Nice going…. NOT!
This reply won’t be up long….. the truth is unpleasant and bitter for many.
Please stop calling yourselves ‘tea party’ You are a GOP pac and you prop up the GOP. The tea party is non partisan and doesn’t deal with candidates, elections or donations.
The real tea party is still out there and watches how much damage you have done to our movement by proclaiming yourselves its leader when you are not.
In case you haven’t been keepin gup with recent events in US history, the TEA Party has moved into a prominent position of influence in American politics.
We would be more evenly spread across more political parties, but Marxist ideology is diametrically opposed to TEA Party initiatives. Thus, a person that believes in TEA Party ideology would have rejected membership in the Democratic Party a long time ago.
If you’re going to deny this accusation, please begin your post with the definition of “Marxism”, then tell us why the Democrats’ agenda doesn’t fit into Marxist ideology.
I’m betting you can’t even define “Marxism” and you wouldn’t know a Marxist if one was brainwashing you with a bullhorn in your face.
And, if you noticed, you are able to contribute any argument here.
I greatly appreciate your viewpoint. Please continue to post your thoughts. I, for one, appreciate you writing them for us.
As for this site, it’s people like you and me that post opinoins here everyone can read.
Keep posting.
By the way, did you know where the flag in your avatar, the Gadsden flag, first appears in recorded history?
At the first mustering of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Semper Fi, brother.
I agree – the Tea Party Patriots are religious fundamentalist and not a true fiscal conservatism movement. When has imposing your religious beliefs onto fellow citizens considered liberty and freedom.
How about this for fiscal conservatism:
EVERYONE must submit a statement of income at the end of the year.
All other revenue is subtracted from the expenditure of the government during that tax year and the amount of taxes necessary to be collected from the individual income of the country is ascertained.
A flat tax is assessed and collected from EVERYONE to equal the amount of money the government spent minus all other revenues to the government.
Congress still does what the Constitution requires and determines all spending.
You seem to be able to regurgitate the indoctrinated party line of the Democrats, but you’re a little short on facts to back it up.
Oh wow, so one can’t express (or as you put it “push”) his religious beliefs that we are created in the image of God, and that God set the standards for morality, and gave us the prescription for a blessed economy, and how abortion is murder, and homosexuality is an abomination, stealing is wrong, and so on but if you express the opposite it’s perfectly ok? And it’s not called “pushing” your ideology on someone, it’s called free speech? But not when I do it? I thought we were supposed to be tolerant of everyone. Your post sure doesn’t seem tolerant to me.
It’s a free country. You can believe whatever you want as long as it doesn’t infringe on my rights. Just don’t push your beliefs onto me. I don’t care if people get abortions or are homosexual. That’s between them and God. Separation between Church and State!
Have you ever actually been to their website or one of their rallies? TEA (taxed enough already) party patriots do not, nor have we ever pushed fundamentalist religious views. We are all about fiscal responsibility and security of our nation.
We are not a PAC, we are a 501c4 non-profit. We do not endorse parties or candidates.
The TPP has as many problems with the GOP as it does the administration. I just love the moles who come on here at the last minute to try to hurt the TPP by posting rubbish.
We will see just how long before the TPP decides to activate its PAC. It came close to doing so during the Wisconsin Recall effort.
It can be both a PAC and a 501 c4 organization.
But this claim of the TPP being nothing but a religious fundamentalist organization is just WACKO!. The TPP has never permitted the advancement of religion within the organization. Never! Miss/Mr. Armalite is looking at inaccurate information and I would love an example sent to me to validate that claim. It is in reality, almost laughable!
I do believe there is evidently an effort in work to raid the Tea Party. In my humble opinion some of the remarks folks are getting upset about are just “raiders” trying to create chaos. Ignore the obvious dissenters and don’t give them the satisfaction of a reply.