Video of 4/3 Boca Chapter Meeting
National Taxpayers Union Rating of Congress is Finalized!
The long awaited 2011 NTU Rating of Congress is finally here! Those unable to contain their excitement can head to the website right now to check it out.
Our thanks to Keli Carender at the Tea Party Patriots for the following summary.
For those who can, here are some cool things from this year’s, last year’s rating:
- NTU evaluated 337 roll call votes in the House and 234 in the Senate on everything from taxes to burdensome regulations, to budgets, to spending and everything limited government in between to come up with this very robust appraisal of Congress.
- There were some minor improvements – the average House scored jumped eight points to 50%, the average Senate score rose one point to 46%
- Fewer Members secured “A” grades and NTU’s “Taxpayers’ Friend Award” – only 53 in the House and Senate down from 79 last year
- Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) snagged the top Senate spot with a 96%
- Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) topped the House at 93% ending the unprecedented 8-year reign of Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) as top scorer (though his drop was not a long one to 7th overall).
- A full list of “Taxpayers’ Friend Award” winners can be found below.
House Taxpayers’ Friend Award Winners (Name, Grade, Score, Rank)
| Duncan (TN) | A |
93% |
1 |
| Royce | A |
92% |
2 |
| Paul * | A |
92% |
3 |
| Campbell | A |
92% |
4 |
| Graves (GA) | A |
91% |
5 |
| Amash | A |
91% |
6 |
| Flake | A |
91% |
7 |
| Mulvaney | A |
90% |
8 |
| Walsh | A |
90% |
9 |
| Chaffetz | A |
90% |
10 |
| Labrador | A |
89% |
11 |
| McClintock | A |
89% |
12 |
| Stutzman | A |
88% |
13 |
| Schweikert | A |
88% |
14 |
| Duncan (SC) | A |
88% |
15 |
| Stearns | A |
88% |
16 |
| Huizenga | A |
88% |
17 |
| Garrett | A |
87% |
18 |
| Jordan | A |
87% |
19 |
| Gowdy | A |
87% |
20 |
| Rokita | A |
87% |
21 |
| Broun | A |
87% |
22 |
| Sensenbrenner | A |
86% |
23 |
| Quayle | A |
86% |
24 |
| Chabot | A |
85% |
25 |
| Rohrabacher | A |
85% |
26 |
| Ribble | A |
85% |
27 |
| Goodlatte | A |
85% |
28 |
| Landry | A |
85% |
29 |
| Southerland | A |
85% |
30 |
| Poe | A |
85% |
31 |
| Franks | A |
85% |
32 |
| Lamborn | A |
85% |
33 |
| Burton | A |
85% |
34 |
| Huelskamp | A |
85% |
35 |
| Lummis | A |
85% |
36 |
| Mack | A |
85% |
37 |
House Taxpayers’ Friend Award Winners (Name, Grade, Score, Rank)
Senate Taxpayers’ Friend Award Winners (Name, Grade, Score, Rank)
| Coburn |
A |
96% |
1 |
| Johnson (WI) |
A |
95% |
2 |
| DeMint |
A |
93% |
3 |
| Toomey |
A |
93% |
4 |
| Lee |
A |
93% |
5 |
| Paul |
A |
92% |
6 |
| Ayotte |
A |
91% |
7 |
| McConnell |
A |
91% |
8 |
| Rubio |
A |
91% |
9 |
| Inhofe |
A |
91% |
10 |
| Hatch |
A |
90% |
11 |
| Crapo |
A |
90% |
12 |
| Risch |
A |
90% |
13 |
| Corker |
A |
90% |
14 |
| McCain |
A |
90% |
15 |
| Vitter |
A |
90% |
16 |
The 912 Super Seniors are Fighting for Limited Government and Religious Freedom
by Barbara Samuells, 912 Super Seniors
This was Barbara’s proposal to her Long Island, NY group and so far they have met with tremendous success. She highly recommends that groups across the US tackle a similar project. If you are interested in taking a lead on this in our area, please email pam@palmbeachcountyteaparty.org
“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, disciplines or exercises.”
Thomas Jefferson
Hello fellow Patriots,
This is a proposal that we work as a group of patriot Long Islanders to initiate in each parish a free standing group working to preserve freedom of religion.
We can start from Tom Hackert’s spreadsheets of parishes in CD 1 and 3. They give us a wonderful tool to begin by listing those Long Island parishes. More to follow.
The end goal is to have every faith community working toward restoring our 1st amendment rights by voting for the candidates who will do that.
However, if we come to the churches with a political party or candidate…or as a tea party or 912 we will lose some or all of the support immediately. If churches develop their own freedom of religion groups they will end up concluding whom they should vote for. I expect we should be able to find our members already involved in every church.
But we who are trying to initiate this must have in our minds and in our hearts that our goal in these inter parish groups is not party nor candidate driven. Our goals, our speech and our actions must be true to the preservation of our Freedom of Religion rights under attack. In that way our experience and determination can set these groups on their own path to informing others and acting to preserve the 1st amendment. We are not there to push even our patriot groups. People who want that will know who we are and will come to us.
How active we may be in these groups is up to each situation. However, initiating the groups NOW and IN GREAT NUMBER is imperative to bring many more Americans to the defense of our Constitution.
This is the process:
#1 Identify leaders from our patriot groups who are already active in each parish. If we can only find members who are not active but willing to work, so be it.
#2 Encourage them to approach their pastor about having an exploratory meeting to form a parish group, as per Cardinal Dolan’s suggestion. The purpose of the group would be the preservation of our religious freedoms.
#3 Facilitate the group’s formation and functioning as needed.
Once a parish group is established that group will decide:
How to educate and inform themselves and their parish.
Whether and how to reach out for support to other faith groups in their communities.
Whether and how to work with parishes in and outside the diocese.
What actions will accomplish their goals.
Which public figures will or will not preserve religious freedom.
We can then add your name to the master spreadsheet so we can know which parishes will be contacted. If you would like to discuss how to approach your pastor we would be happy to help.
Cardinal Dolan said it is unwise to yield to the temptation to be frustrated by politics and leave it to others, because that leaves a vacuum that will be filled by “the religion called secularism.” Secularism has a creed, dogma, adherents and a strong belief that “our religion should not be involved in the public square,” he said. “They’ll be happy to take over for us and we can’t let that happen.”
He said the bishops’ role is to preach principles, but the laity’s charism is to be involved in politics and bring a religiously informed conscience to the public square.
“We can be political without being partisan. We ought to bring values and convictions to politics. We will not be misled by people who say we shouldn’t be involved,” he said.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1200904.htm
Barbara Samuells
Co Founder www.912SuperSeniors.org
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Ronald Reagan
Ron McNeil Energizes Boca Raton Crowd!
Balmy, comfortable weather welcomed our usual patriotic crowd – along with some new faces – in Boca Raton on Tuesday night, April 3rd at Boca Greens Country Club. Many in the crowd who had not heard US Senate Candidate Ron McNeil speak before were clearly in for a pleasant surprise. McNeil’s home stomping grounds are up in the panhandle; so many people in our area do not know him well. That changed quickly on this great evening! Ron McNeil is a great American success story—the absolute perfect example of how good ol’ American ingenuity and “hutzpah” found in finding a need, then filling it, which is what actually creates jobs and wealth… NOT government programs!
Once again, the food selection at Boca Greens was terrific, including fresh fish, sausage and peppers, and lasagna. One lucky patriot, who purchased several raffle tickets, won THREE of the six dinner coupons that were up for grabs! He will be eating well in Boca for the next several days!
Boca Chapter Coordinator Alex Berry began the proceedings at 7:00pm with the Pledge of Allegiance. He stated what the PBCTP is, and what it stands for, as usual, followed by introducing our Founder, Pam Wohlschlegel. Pam made general announcements, but spoke mostly about our upcoming Tax Day Tea Party Rally in Wellington on April 15th, at the Wellington Amphitheatre. In addition to promoting the event, she also asked for volunteers to help us with the expected crowds. Brand new flyers were printed up and brought to the meeting just in time, and we also have new Palm Beach County Tea Party lapel pins. Pam then introduced Barbara Samuells, who is active in the 912 Super Seniors group, and has appeared on Glenn Beck’s program on more than one occasion. Her “live participation” illustration of how we have been sold a sack of goods with ObamaCare was a definite highlight of the evening.
As in March, we had a great turnout from local candidates- Mike Lameyer (FL Senate District 25), Joe Talley (County Sheriff), James Ryan O’Hara (FL House of Representatives), and Anne Trujillo (US House of Representatives) and Melanie Peterson (FL House of Representatives) were among the evenings’ attendees, all of whom got a moment to introduce themselves, and what they stood for, before the main speaker was introduced.
Alex then introduced Rhonda Harrell, Ron McNeil’s Deputy Campaign Manager. She provided a little bit of background for McNeil, and introduced him to the podium. Standing 6’5” in his dark suit, McNeil’s stage presence is energetic and imposing. Rather than stand behind the podium, McNeil paced in front of it, addressing the crowd and making eye contact in a personal, folksy, heartfelt, way that was winsome, and it truly resonated with our crowd. How refreshing it was to hear someone who was unconcerned with “editing” their statements, or having a canned campaign speech! He had a small sign made up of what the problems are that we face, along with his proposed solutions from which he drew for his material in his speech. The fact that his motivation is NOT a career in politics, but, rather, a sincere desire to SAVE this country from the liberal poison that has been infecting our nation so badly was also very well received.
McNeil’s stance on virtually all the issues was quite consistent with the worldview of our Founding Fathers—that stance and worldview that we always ought to be suspicious of Big Government, and that the government needs to “get OUT of the business of being ‘in business’”… In other words, the government should absolutely NOT be involved in any area that the private sector can handle on its own.
Despite McNeil’s appealing and authentic “Good Ole Boy” bravado, he is also perfectly in line with the classic conservative (not to mention Constitutional) position on Foreign Policy—Of course, he still wants to ardently support Israel and other key allies, but is sick of the modern “rules of engagement” in warfare, and is weary of the fact that we are paying to have troops all over the world where we have no conflicts—putting the cost burden on the shoulders of American taxpayers. Worse still, we borrow money from other countries to be the world’s “policeman”. Our Founding Fathers were totally against this idea, a phenomenon that has been bred into our conservative mindset since 1941. For the 200 years prior to 1941 (the vast majority of our country’s history), the classic conservative position was to only go into war when we absolutely NEED to, get in and WIN the war, and bring the troops home. McNeil struck no one as being anything other than very strong on national defense, but he has more of a common sense, constitutional viewpoint on Foreign Policy than most.
His compelling speech made for a boisterous Question & Answer period, which McNeil deftly handled with his usual grace and aplomb. McNeil and his Deputy Campaign Manager were the last people to leave—staying to accommodate every question, comment, or conversation request from the crowd. The outrage from the seemingly uniform attack on our Constitution, liberties, and way of life is what motivates a self-made man like McNeil to enter the race, and we are the better for it. Like many of us in the Tea Party, we don’t “want” to volunteer and make our voices heard, we feel like we “have” to. Like they say, “It takes a Carter to bring us a Reagan!” I think that effectively sums up the political scenario for McNeil, who is an authentic “heir-apparent” to the Reagan mantle. Anyway, the straight talk and genuine demeanor of this man truly energized our crowd. It really was refreshing to see someone with the swagger and “cojones” to back up what he says.
We look forward to more great meetings in 2012 for our Boca Chapter—please INVITE YOUR FRIENDS to our next event, which will be on May 1st, 2012!!! Our speaker will be Blaise Ingoglia, the new Vice Chairman for the Republican Party of Florida, and the creator of the very popular YouTube video series, “Government Gone Wild!”
Remember—we always have our Boca Chapter Dinner/Speaker event on the FIRST TUESDAY of every month, so mark your calendars! We now have FIVE months to make a difference for the next election, so please get involved if you aren’t yet, and STAY involved if you already are!
Pictures from Alex:
CLICK HERE to see all the photos at once.
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Federal Deficit and Budget Reforms – Free but RSVP req’d
Energy and Climate Realities a Big Hit at Jupiter/Palm Beach Gardens Meeting
Jupiter/PBG guests enjoyed the presentation of “Energy and Climate Realities” regarding the United States’ energy abundance and Government hindrances to increased production of fossil fuel-based electrical power. Mark Wohlschlegel, Vice President Toshiba Controls also noted the old CO2/Greenhouse Gas arguments still being used by our Government to shut down coal powered energy production. Furthermore, despite the inefficiencies and peak demand capacity shortfalls of alternative energy, wind and solar power are still being supported politically, most recently in Florida thru HB 7117 – not yet signed by Governor Scott.
Lillia Dottavi, a Councilwoman in Rome represented Tea Party Italy and spoke of the Italian socialized medical care system which has proven disastrous to both the population and to the budgets of government, noting that eighty percent (80%) of current budgets is for medical care. Lillia commented that Italy has the flag, youth of the country and the senior citizens in common with the American Tea Party.
Blaine Presley, our youngest old timer in the Palm Beach County Tea Party lauded us to “keep up the fight”. Barbara Samuells of 912 Super Seniors spoke of her recent visit as guest of Glenn Beck at Mercury One studios in Dallas and of how gentle and kind a man is Glenn. Barbara spoke to Obama Care’s fallacious “urgency” argument, though 85% of Americans are presently insured and that the only net gain is for 5 to 10 % of the population to become insured (but then where’s the control for Big Government ?). Most of us learned for the first time of Soros and Son’s efforts to fund a giant blitz on the states to pass “popular vote” legislation, doing away with the Electoral College. This is critical, all hands on deck to oppose this !
Pam Wohlschlegel, Head of PBCTP and Florida Director for Tea Party Patriots updated us on statewide initiatives between the Tea Party Patriots organizations and her recent trip to Orlando, see more on this in Pam’s 3/31/2012 post. Pam conveyed her excitement for the upcoming Tax Day Tea Party at the Wellington Amphitheater, Sunday April 15, 2012 as she reviewed the great roster of speakers to include Allen West and Dick Morris among others and to feature the band “LEVEL”.
Barbara Grossman closed out the evening with the declaration of winners for the Restaurant Gift Certificate Raffle. A good time was had by all; the next meeting of the Jupiter/Palm Beach Gardens Chapter of the Palm Beach County Tea Party will be May 7, 2012 at Abacoa Golf Club, 5:30 PM.
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