FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2010
Contact: Colleen Owens
Phone: 804-335-5966
Email: colleeno@richmondteaparty.com
Congress Fails to Learn Lessons from the Midterm Elections
Legislature changes school menus but does nothing to reduce spending or the debt
Richmond, Va. – The Richmond Tea Party is seeing little if any indication that Congress or Republican leadership has learned the lessons of the November mid-term elections.
Addressing the recent activities in the lame duck Congress, Jamie Radtke, President of the Richmond Tea Party, said, “Congress continues to demonstrate their inability to do anything outside of ‘business as usual’ and continues on a course that recklessly endangers the nation.”
In the weeks since the November elections, Congress has focused on: changing local school menus, forcing state and local law enforcement authorities into collective bargaining, granting citizenship to certain illegal aliens, extending unemployment benefits, creating huge regulatory burdens on small farmers, and deciding whether to increase estate and income taxes.
Meanwhile, there has been no action to reduce spending or debt.
“Instead of putting our school children on a Washington-mandated diet, Congress should be putting the government itself on a strict diet!” said Radtke. “The voters sent a clear message: stop the runaway spending and unsustainable borrowing. Americans want cooperation, not just for the sake of cooperation, but to avert the fiscal collapse that is sure to come if spending and borrowing are not brought under control.”
The tax deal legislation being considered does not cut spending, but instead adds more spending and increases the deficit.
“Congress should be cutting spending drastically, not merely avoiding more debt, and certainly not adding to the unacceptable deficit we now have, as the pending legislation does,” Radtke said. “This shows that President Obama and this lame duck Congress aren’t willing to tackle the gravest problem facing the nation. They refuse to accept the will of the voters.”
Even more disconcerting are the recent committee appointments by Republican Leadership. Congressman Fred Upton was appointed chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Congressman Hal Rogers to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
“It is hard to believe that the Republican leadership’s response to one of the greatest political upheavals in American history, which put Republicans back in power, is to appoint Fred “The Light Bulb Ban Bandit” Upton and Hal “Prince of Pork” Rogers to chairmanships,” said Radtke.
“The Republicans are already demonstrating a return to dysfunctional politics,” Radtke continued. “If this is any indicator of what is ahead for us in 2011, it will be unacceptable to an overwhelming majority of Republican, Democrat, Independent and Tea Party Americans. We don’t need shameless spenders and unrestrained regulators in charge of the House. Congress had better make serious spending cuts a priority. Nothing else is acceptable. The tea party was serious when we said the GOP is on probation.”
THANK YOU, how can they just cave in like that?? They will see in 2012!!! Conform or be gone!!! Thank you for this article!!
This particular Tea Partier is seeing every indication that the “leadership” in CONgress has not changed and will not change what it thinks or does; it will only change what it says. Dem or Rep, they only care about the issues ordinary Americans care about when they are not the party in power and need a constituency to get back into the club. It has taken all of a month for this fact to be revealed. The phony two-party system is plain for all to see. Any attempt at genuine “change” will be greeted by “Embrace, Extend and Extinguish.”
The new Rep-dominated CONgress hasn’t even taken their seats yet but the bank-owned properties we call “representatives” have negotiated a deal where the deficit for fiscal 2011 is expected to be an all-time high of over $1.5 Trillion.
Ben, that $600 Billion of Treasuries you planned to monetize ain’t gonna cut it. Can we get another $Trillion please? That should cover us for next year.
BTW, folks, prices for real things are feeling the love:
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=8377
The middle class has a target painted on their backs. Your living standards will be reduced. Count on it.
Very good article, Congress has been so insulated that they do not have the ability to change. The Republican party thanks the TEA party is nothing more than a support group for them. Just look at the compromises going on right now.
We as TEA Party members have two major enemies…the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Most of the members of both have never had jobs outside of government or education. They have never started businesses nor had to be responsible for their own care.
Remeber the following:
10th Amendment to the Constitution of The United States
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”
–Patrick Henry
All 535 members of Congress do not hold these values. We will prevail or secession is our only alternative.
Thanks to all contributors. It looks to me that more of these politicians are going to have to learn a very painful lesson.
We have got to keep the pressure on these clowns to do what is best for the country instead of what is best for them.