United Liberty

Recently, the TEA Party movement celebrated its first anniversary. At first the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party activists were dismissed as a few grumpy right-wingers upset that America elected a black president. They were given little credence beyond being an amusing political side show. That soon changed. On April 15th hundreds of thousands of average Americans showed up at protest rallies across the nation, outraged at the “stimulus” package of goodies doled out to special interests, liberal activism organizations and Democrat pet projects. CNN reported that a few thousand people showed up at the rally in Atlanta, but I was there and can assure you that it was close to ten-fold that amount. It was shoulder-to-shoulder for about four blocks in one direction, not counting the people on the side streets.

Once they could no longer be dismissed as a fringe element, TEA Party activists were labeled as “Astro-turf” (fake grass roots), accused of being flunkies of Big Corporate America, mindlessly doing the bidding of their masters. They were accused of being a fabrication of FOX News and the Republican Party. They were accused of being everything except what they are…average Americans, generally with traditional conservative values, who were fed up over 20 years of Bush-Clinton-Bush politics, two political parties who paid only lip service to the people they claimed to serve while engaging in a bacchanalian orgy of political perks, who had finally been pushed over the edge by a pork-laden spending bill of almost $800 billion. They were saying “Enough is enough!”, and they were going to make their voices be heard.

This week, Jason and Brett talk with United Liberty contributors Doug Deal and Mike Hassinger.

Their discussion covered:

The election was over three weeks ago, and most of our focus was on Barack Obama and John McCain. But, I thought it would be good to take a look at the results for the House of Representatives. It was widely publicized that Congress had very low approval ratings coming into the election. According to these polls, it has been hovering between 15% and 20%.

Former Congressman CA-11 Pete McCloskey, who switched his party affiliation from (R) to (D) last year after becoming disillusioned with the “new brand of Republicanism” (aka Neoconservatism) has decided to not only endorse Debbie Cook, the Democratic candidate in CA’s 46th District, but also write to 46th District Republicans explaining his rationale.

“Dear Republican,” the letter begins. “Like you, I was proud to be a Republican until the advent of Bush and the Neocons. My family have been active California Republicans since l859, the year before Lincoln was elected.” - Politicker.com

Last week we published an article “Bush Agrees to Timetable” that gave a 100 mile flyover of the “sticky situation” the Bush Administration is in with regards to its Iraq policy. Over the weekend public reporting of the issue has matured and it seems that the security agreement being pushed by the U.S. is not only in a fragile state, but also unlikely to pass in its current form.

Ever since the “billionaire bailout” of Wall Street passed nearly two weeks ago, the market has signaled its displeasure in the goverment’s decision to shore up the failing system. The bailout passed on a Friday and the following week the Dow had its worse week in history. This created an environment where the Administration took hits for their “failed plan”- a plan that had not even been put into practice. But since markets look forward, expectations of the effects of the plan helped bring about the miserable week on Wall Street.

Gone are the days of the old Republican Party- a party that supported the principles of less government, low spending, low taxes, the rule of law, and the United States Constitution. Nowadays, Republicans spend as much as Democrats, burdening future generations with inevitable tax hikes, and making our federal government larger and more powerful than one could have imagined possible just a few years ago. 

The second Presidential campaign debate of the 2008 election took place Tuesday night, October 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. This debate took place when the Obama campaign had been riding high from the bounce from economic conditions that would favor the party not currently in the White House. However, the post-VP debate spin seemed to be moving toward McCain. Tuesday morning’s polling seemed to indicate that McCain was cutting into Obama’s lead. However, I believe that the slight swing to McCain will end with the results of Tuesday night’s debate.

So, much to my chagrin the House of Representatives voted to pass the bailout bill yesterday, after it was made into a mashup of the proposed bailout, the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008, and the Tax Extenders and Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2008. In addition to the EIEA to woo Democrats, and the TEAMTRA to woo Republicans, many specifically targeted pork projects were added to entice lawmakers to vote for it. The sections and their “enticements” are listed below:

Sec. 101. Extension of alternative minimum tax relief for nonrefundable personal credits.

Sec. 102. Extension of increased alternative minimum tax exemption amount.

Sec. 103. Increase of AMT refundable credit amount for individuals with longterm unused
credits for prior year minimum tax liability, etc.

Sec. 201. Deduction for State and local sales taxes.