After Senator Arlen Specter’s politically expedient switch to the Democratic Party, Congressional Democrats are recommending Republicans to become more moderate.  Some believe the Republicans ran a moderate, John McCain, for President, while others believe the Republican Party needs to return to its more fiscally & politically conservative roots.  Some believe the Republican Party must adopt more moderate stances in order to compete, while others believe compromise has badly hurt the party.  Still others believe there is little difference between the two parties, as both parties pass $3 trillion budgets, add more debt, endorse huge bailouts, and increase the size & scope of the Federal Government.  What do you think?

Read the article here.

After terrifying New York City residents and wasting $328,000 of taxpayer money, Obama is ordering a review of the decision to buzz the Statue of Liberty with a low-flying Air Force One and two F-16s.  The question is, how much time and money will the review waste?  It’s actually pretty simple, really.  Immediately refund the taxpayers $328,000 for this ridiculous publicity stunt, and next time, use Photoshop.

Read the article here.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said he believes the technology exists to implement a mileage tax. He said he sees no point in waiting years for the results of pilot programs since such a tax system is inevitable as federal gasoline tax revenues decline.

“Why do we need a pilot program? Why don’t we just phase it in?” said Oberstar, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman. Oberstar is drafting a six-year transportation bill to fund highway and transit programs that is expected to total around a half trillion dollars.

The tax would entail equipping vehicles with GPS technology to determine how many miles a car has been driven and whether on interstate highways or secondary roads. The devices would also calculate the amount of tax owed.

You can contact Mr. Oberstar at one of his 5 offices listed below:

Senator Arlene Spector, to the open arms of the Obama administration and leading Democrats, has announced that he is switching his party affiliation.

After voting in favor of the Senate’s version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the $787 billion “Stimulus”), being in support of a “pathway to citizenship”, often referred to as amnesty, and now, leading the charge in support of The Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) Act, which would create “an independent agency dedicated to advancing science from the laboratory into practice”, Spector says his former party had strayed too far to the right (whatever “the right” means anymore).

So, what does it mean now that Spector is a Democrat, giving the party a 60 seat majority in the Senate? What does it mean that his home state of Pennsylvania has seen over 200,000 citizens change their registration from Republican to Democrat?  What does it mean now that he is viewed more favorably by Democrats than Republicans and that he has a bill asking for our tax dollars to fund another agency to be managed by an irresponsible Washington DC, all while introducing legislation to form a federally-subsidized four-year college?  You decide.

Personally, I liken his party change to changing the lapel pin on your jacket.  Still the same guy, still wearing the same suit, and he still has more faith in Washington DC than he has in you.

The America’s Tea Party Movement is a nationwide protest forum for any and all groups and individuals dissatisfied with the current governance of the United States, regardless of ideology, partisan identity, or political affiliation.

While we may disagree on the solution, we come together as Americans to peacefully express our dissent from the current political status quo.  We are individuals of all ages, sexual orientation, creed, color, rank and file with a common message:  We are sick and tired of our out of control government and we don’t trust the major parties in Washington DC to bring real changes.  We are demanding that our representatives uphold their oath to defend and protect the supreme law of the land, the Constitution.

More than anyone in the world, the American people understand our inalienable rights:
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Let’s Re-Declare  them!

At the moment, we are mired in a deflationary recession, but there is growing concern over future inflation.  After expanding its balance sheet to an unprecedented $2.2 trillion, the Federal Reserve plans to rely on interest paid on bank reserves to stem a potential bout of high inflation.  The strategy is a gamble, however.  Just last year, interest on bank reserves failed to prevent the benchmark interest rate from falling below  the policy makers’ target.  Are rising prices on the horizon for the US taxpayer?

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Setting yet another record, the Treasury is set to borrow $361 billion during the second quarter.  To cover the government’s intensifying borrowing needs, Congress raised the national debt limit to $12.1 trillion as part of the “stimulus” package back in February.  National debt currently stands at $11.1 trillion and is rising fast.  So, while President Obama tells Americans that we need to become a nation of savings and investment once again, the government continues to borrow and spend its way into massive debt.  It’s the old “Do what I say, not what I do approach.”

Read the article here.

Most state governments can’t balance their budgets either.  According to this UPI article, the States are facing at least $200 billion in budget deficits.  States have cut about $40 billion in spending and may cut $62 billion more.  Only Missouri, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Wyoming are likely to avoid budget shortfalls in the upcoming fiscal year.  At least 12 states have taken steps to raise income and sales taxes, and many states have hiked “fees” on a variety of products and services in an attempt to avoid severe deficits.

What are your city councils,  reps & senators, and governors doing to balance the budget?  Are they cutting spending or just raising taxes & fees?

Who’s up for re-election in 2010, and how have they voted on fiscal matters?

Are any first-time, fiscal conservatives* running for office as political “outsiders”?  Perhaps some fresh faces are needed.

Read the article here.

*  Fiscal conservatives can be Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or Third Party

President Obama wants to devote 3% of GDP to scientific innovation. Obama claims his administration would double the budgets of key agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Now, who can argue with science? We all agree that science, research, and technology are vital aspects of human civilization. However, several, key questions should be considered.

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The following was written by Jeremy Styron, a news editor from Northeast Georgia. Much of his critique/commentary of the Tea Party movement centers around both the perception of the movement through the media and from commentary taken from this site (which we don’t expect to necessarily reflect your personal points of view). As an individual watching the movement from the outside, he has been gracious and bold enough to address “Tea Partiers” as a guest commentator. Please feel free to provide your feedback. In doing so, we request that you provide him the same respect for his differences of opinion that he has.

Everyone,

As I’ve recently offered some rather critical comments (and here) about the tea baggers and about the various “Tea Parties” cropping up across the country, I was invited to write a guest commentary for this site. Here, I will offer my appraisal of this movement as well a suggestion or two for making it less susceptible to misunderstandings.

One of my main arguments has been that it was getting a bit hard to tell — as we on the outside attempt to sift through various online and television media coverage and literature on the reteaparty Web site — just what this movement is all about. Obviously from the mainstream media, we hear movement supporters arguing against taxes and against government overspending, as in the recently passed $787 stimulus bailout plan. But as most everyone knows by now, all types of folks seem to be cropping up at these rallies nationwide. We have seen the far right and folks who are anti-anything Obama to the core. We have seen the anti-tax bunch. We have seen the cartoonish 18th-century throw-backs, pretending they are somehow helping to enact change by resembling those who helped spur the American Revolution.
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