Sauk Valley Tea Party Values

On 9-12 we again will meet to show our unity in opposing oppression and an out of control federal government. At this venue, besides demonstrating our displeasure with the current regime in Washington and Springfield, we will start to structure our organization to better address our grievances. Part of this will be to adopt with consensus our core state values and platform. This blog offers a preliminary draft of our core values to be documented and put on our website.

Sauk Valley Tea Party Values
1) RETURN OF OUR RIGHTS. We believe that all Government Actions must adhere to our Constitutions Bill of Rights. Not through some court process, but through the common sense of the people. The Government is to not tell the people their rights, but rather, we the people shall inform the Government of its limitations. We have a right to religious expression, both public and private, to speech, to assemble, of the press including the Internet, to own a gun, to due process, and from the government forcing anything upon us that is not based in the constitution as spelled out in the 10th amendment. The Bill of Rights is not a living breathing document, but an eternal truth that represents the detailing of the 3 God given Natural Laws - the Rights to Life, Liberty and Property. The Governments sole purpose is to protect the rights of the individual even to the detriment of the common good, but not to the detriment of another's individual rights.
* Life - all human life is precious and must be protected from the harm of others
* Liberty - no citizen shall be denied freedom that does not impose upon the life, liberty or property of others.
* Property - the government has no authority over any justly acquired property of its citizens unless that property unduly infringes upon the rights of others.

2) LIMIT THE SIZE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. The Federal Government has overstepped its constitutional rights by performing duties not outlined in our constitution. We the people will act within our rights to return our Federal Government to its rightful role and size. The federal government only needs to be large enough to protect the borders of our country and insure the ease of interstate commerce. Looking at the $3.5 Trillion 2010 budget, just under $1Trillion is dedicated to our framers original intent. Unfortunately, these unfunded mandates are impossible to reverse in the short term. Therefore, to stave off further encroachments and help reverse the tide we support an amendment to our constitution that limits the size of our federal government to 15% of GDP. Our federal government has averaged around 20% for the past several decades, so 15% is a reasonable and attainable goal (equal to about a $2 Trillion Budget for 2010). This type of spending restriction is better than a balanced budget amendment, because it limits the size of the federal government and its power rather than motivating the government to spend more by taxing more.

3) ELIMINATE PERSONAL INCOME TAX. Taxation - the tax code is fundamentally against our own constitution. We must repeal the 16th amendment and return our federal governments size to enable it to run as our founding fathers intended through minimal tariffs on imported goods. The tariffs should not be done in a punitive manner, but rather recognizing the framers intentions of raising money by penalizing those things that limit domestic production rather penalizing domestic production. With only $2.5 trillion in imports and income tax revenue of $1 trillion it appears difficult to fill the gap. However, if we are mandating a Federal budget to 15% of GDP that reduces the federal budget by $1.5 and the current federal receipts, less income tax is $1.3 trillion, therefore only $200 billion must make up the difference. Our recommendation is to eliminate the income tax and have a 10% tariff on all imports.

4) AUDIT THE FEDERAL RESERVE. The Federal Reserve likewise is fundamentally against the constitution. Our goal is to eliminate the secrecy of our monetary system and re-create a free market system to our monetary system so all may see who coins the money and how it is disseminated into our economy. We support HR1207 which Audits the Federal Reserve.

5) TERM LIMITS. The fastest way to eliminate corruption is to remove life time political offices. We support a constitutional amendment to limit all elected federal officials to just 2 consecutive terms.

6) ELIMINATE INSTITUTIONALIZED LOBBYING. Our constitution allows for individuals to address grievances with the government, not institutions. We recommend an amendment to our constitution that limits all lobbying of elected officials to just 1 local representative and the 2 senators. It would also stipulate that no lobbying may be done outside the elected officials local office. No organization or its affiliates no matter how loosely connected can lobby across state lines. Finally, the amendment would eliminate any and all campaign contributions from anything, but individual citizens. This amendment would also contain a provision that no elected official can be employed as a lobbyist for 4 years after they leave office.

7) ILLEGALIZE EARMARKS AND BACK DOOR RESOLUTIONS. No amendments to any bills passed by congress can have added to them unrelated funding, laws or procedures. Bills must be clean and deal with only the primary topic. They must be read allowed in congress and on C-Span to police this policy and insure simple, uncomplicated bills that have tyranny buried in them.

8) WE SUPPORT CAPITALISM. There is no 3rd way and no middle ground in economics. Intervention leads to oppression and long term economic consequences. The role of governments are to only protect our fundamental liberties against fraud and force. Our federal government has intervened heavily into our economy and giving favoritism to those more politically connected. Capitalism did not cause our economic melt down, but rather government intervention and manipulation of our monetary system by the federal reserve.

To Summarize We the Sauk Valley Tea Party believe in
Limiting the Federal Spending to 15% of GDP
Illegalize Earmarks
Ban Institutional Lobbying
Enact HR1207 to Audit the Federal Reserve
Repeal the 16th Amendment
Term Limits of 2 Consecutive
Yes to Capitalism

In other words we demand LIBERTY.