A New Senate Entry?

Tax Day Tea Party Rocks Wellington

On a bright sunny afternoon in the beautiful Wellington Amphitheatre, an exuberant crowd sat on the astroturf and took in the sounds of LEVEL, and the stirring words of Allen West, Dick Morris, Anita MonCrief and many others.

The Tea Party is alive and well and ready to engage in – as some would say, “.. the most important election of our lifetime…”

The event drew a good size crowd, from tea party and 912 “regulars” to members of the “other side” who lined the back of the field with posters critical of some of the speakers and themes. The protest was peaceful though and even these folks seemed to enjoy themselves.

A lot of local candidates, from Congress down to School Board were in the audience, their teams fanning out to collect hundreds of signed nominating petitions, and most with whom we spoke thought the event was very productive for them.

The speakers covered the bases, some with some new food for thought. MC Brian Mudd from WJNO gave one of the most unusual but highly positive introductions of Congressman Colonel Allen West I have heard, alluding to his national appeal. The Congressman laid out the dangers of another four years of Barack Obama, and assured him (are you listening Mr. President?) that he would most assuredly be voting against the “Buffet Rule” this week.

Anita Montcrief told her tale of finding corruption at the highest levels of ACORN, and then laid out the more current conspiracy between that organization in its new form and the Justice Department to overturn voter ID laws across the country.

Dick Morris, a recent passenger on the Romney train, speculated that Mitt Romney would be one of the best Presidents in history. He asked for a show of hands for “who is more conservative now after 3 years of Obama?” and after seeing an overwhelming yes, tried to convince us that Mitt is too. He also told of the dangers of another Obama term, but suggested that his re-election was definitely not assured.

All in all, a pleasant and stirring day and a good kickoff to the 2012 electoral season.

Some pictures of the event: CLICK HERE to see all the photos at once.

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Cities Propose New Taxing District

This Monday, at a joint meeting of the County Commission and the 15 cities that have brought the lawsuit over the Inspector General funding, a proposal surfaced to create a new taxing district. This is the wrong approach and will likely end up as a ballot question that could ask people to choose between higher taxes (with a new district) or continuing to fund the Inspector General – which 72% of the voters said they wanted.

Read the synopsis on the TAB Website.

Marielena Stuart Anchors the March Jupiter Chapter

“I will take no prisoners – and neither should you.”

With that call to action, Senate candidate Marielena Stuart called on all of us to join the fight against socialism in this country. “It is the eleventh hour in this country, and about to strike midnight”. Having grown up in Cuba, with a father and uncle who fought Castro and were jailed as political prisoners, she knows socialism when she sees it, as the first phase of communism.

In a wide ranging talk that touched on both domestic and foreign policy issues, she drew attention to things that need to be part of the national conversation but have been avoided by the mainstream media and the national candidates:

• Sustainable development (which she associates with international socialism), driven by the UN Agenda 21, is a direct assault on our liberty.
• The Palestinian Authority is not just radical Islamist, it is also Marxist.
• Islamic law and politics are incompatible with our constitution and must be rejected in the US.
• The Department of Education must be cleared out and disinfected – you don’t want these people polluting your children’s minds.
• We must dismantle those federal departments that are obstacles to private sector growth, starting with the worst – the EPA.

It was a red meat speech and right on the money. We were left feeling that if Marielena Stuart is elected to the Senate, the place will never be the same again. Truly a candidate for the times.

In other business, we heard from Mel Grossman on upcoming events including the Tax Day Tea Party in Wellington, Terry Brady on fundraising, Iris Scheibl on the coming forum on How Municipal Elections affect our lives, and Barbara Samuels about the National Rally for Religious Freedom on March 23.

Local candidates for office that were introduced (in addition to Marielena Stuart) were Mike Lameyer (Florida Senate 29), Mary Lynn Magar and Calvin Turnquist (Florida House 82), Joe Talley (County Sheriff), Laura Hanley (County Commission District 1) and Lowell Levine (School Board district 1).

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Impressions of Three Campaign Rallys

Senator Nelson Calls for Investigation of Conservative Activists

Some of you may have received this letter from our Democrat Senator. He is claiming that

“..a handful of super-rich conservative activists are behind an orchestrated effort to keep millions of seniors, younger voters and minorities from casting ballots next year…”

and he is calling for a Senate investigation to

“..see if Florida’s law was part of a plan that led to similar voting law changes in more than a dozen other states this year.” and then “.. I have asked the Justice Department to look into who’s behind these changes. “

This is chilling. Where was Senator Nelson when Acorn was subverting the election process all across the country and Black Panthers were intimidating voters at the polls. This is a part of an organized effort to weaken our election laws and all the more reason why everyone who is able should volunteer as a poll worker or watcher to help keep elections fair.

County GOP Picnic Draws Assortment of Candidates and Enthusiasts

Quite a few 912 and Tea Party members were sighted among the 120 or so attendees at the PBCGOP picnic today in John Prince Park, in spite of the competition from the Tea Party Convention in Daytona and the AFP Conference in DC. The food was good and the networking was worth the visit, but the program was somewhat chaotic.

In addition to the local luminaries – Congressmen Allen West and Tom Rooney, Florida House members Bill Hager and Pat Rooney, and former Senator and candidate George LeMieux, we were joined by Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, and a surrogate for Texas Governor Rick Perry, his son Griffin.

Senator Santorum gave a rousing speech (in my opinion), focused on some of the issues that have been minimized in the campaign so far. These include the importance of the family in restoring America to greatness, and the importance of bringing back viable manufacturing to this country to restore the position of the middle class. Unfortunately, by the time the Senator spoke much of the crowd had drifted away and many of those who were left continued talking among themselves and hardly paid attention to the speech. This seemed rude to me, but when the Senator had finished it got worse. The speakers that followed him had to shout to be heard and were ignored by most of the crowd. If this is the way the Republican Party of Palm Beach treats its candidates then we are in for a rough 2012 indeed. Nothing was done by the organizers to restore decorum to the gathering.

This was a shame as two very interesting candidates for the seat being vacated by Bill Snyder (FH82) introduced themselves near the end. Calvin Turnquist and MaryLynn Magar are new on the scene and both seem to have a lot to offer. We also got to see Anna Trujillo who is running for Ted Deutch’s CD19 seat, and the candidates for County Commission district 1, Hal Valeche and Laura Hanley, and Senate 25 candidate Mike Lameyer. Others who were present, including Albert Key and Karen Harrington did not speak, probably because it got to the point that very few were even listening.

Besides the rudeness of the crowd, another troubling thing was the way Joe Budd was refused the opportunity to tell the crowd about the Herman Cain PBC Convention Center event in a little more than a week. “NO SURROGATES” said chairman Dinerstein. Interesting – what was Griffen Perry, chopped liver? I guess there must be a rule exception for relatives of candidates.

Herman Cain is in town on 11/16 for several events, including a $50 fundraiser at the Convention Center expected to bring out the grassroots volunteers before he goes over to the island for the big bucks. This might have been of interest to the attendees, and the appearance of any Presidential candidate in Palm Beach County should be noted. “NO EXCEPTIONS”, we have to stay neutral says the chairman. In the grassroots universe, educating people about candidates is what we do. The local Republican party has a different mission and different rules. This is one reason that grassroots groups like the Tea Party and 912 have arisen – the “establishment” is not always your friend.

Here’s a few pictures of the event.

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Heritage Congressional Scorecard

Heritage Action for America, a sister organization to The Heritage Foundation, produces a congressional scorecard for all Senators and Representatives, based on the bills they sponsor as well as how they voted on those bills of particular interest to conservatives.

In the most recent scorecard, there were 19 Senate bills and 30 House bills tracked. Of our local delegation of 5 Congressmen and our US Senators, Marco Rubio garnered the highest score of 93 (of 100), followed by Allen West with 74 and Tom Rooney with 63. The Democrats were far behind with Bill Nelson and Alcee Hastings tied at 10, Ted Deutch at 7, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz bringing up the rear with a score of 4 out of 100.

All the scores for Florida can be found at Heritage Action for America. Click on the names of the Congressman to see how they voted on the relevant bills.

Marco Rubio’s votes aligned with Heritage on 18 of the 19 bills. The one where he differed was “S2-1011, Undermine Ability of Senators to Block Unanimous Consent: Change the rules of the Senate to undermine the ability of Senators to prevent legislation from passing by unanimous consent (i.e., eliminates so-called “secret holds”).” He voted yes.

Allen West aligned on 23 of the 30 House bills, differing on H103, H143, H384, H555, H633, H677, and H690. The last two were involved with the debt limit increase deal which the Congressman supported but Heritage did not.

Tom Rooney aligned on 20 of the 30, differing on H103, H143, H179, H275, H384, H424, H455, H491, H677 and H690.

Click on the bill numbers for the Heritage explanation of the votes.

The Debt Ceiling is Raised – Now What?

Many press accounts of the debt ceiling compromise say “… the tea party won…”, and President Obama was forced to capitulate. It does not feel that way to me. For some reason, this feels as bad as the malaise that followed the passage of the Affordable Care Act. For days it seemed like the sun would not shine again.

Many in the tea party and 912 world are very disappointed in the outcome, and for some reasons that have not been widely explored. Yes it may have been difficult to get more from the divided Congress. But several aspects of the bill seem to have given the initiative for further action completely to the Democrats. The question that hangs in the air like smoke after a firefight is …. what now? What is the strategy to fend off the coming tax increases. How will the “select committee” resolve ideological differences over the role of government and fend off the “trigger” that will decimate the military?

Many tea party and 912 members worked hard to get Congressman Allen West elected, some going back to the 2008 race. We want to be loyal, we want to support him in 2012. But we really need to understand. This is some of what we need to know:

1. The bill cuts about $1T over 10 years, but the reduction from planned spending over the next two years is pocket change. Since this Congress can’t bind a future Congress to a course of action, why is anything in the out years even relevant?
2. The second “tranche” requires agreement of 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats, yet to be named, or else massive cuts are applied to the military budget and to Medicare providers. Since cuts of the suggested size would severely impact our war fighting capablility and leave us weak in a world of increasing danger and instability, how could this even be contemplated? And as to Medicare providers – will not cutting doctors and hospitals create massive supply disruptions that will make care for seniors difficult to obtain?
3. Since both aspects of the mandatory actions on failure of the commission could be considered results sought by a majority of Democrats (based on past actions), hasn’t this bill essentially handed all the leverage over to that party? Why would the 6 Democrats on the commission have any incentive to compromise?
4. Speaker Boehner’s PowerPoint charts say that the commission will not be able to raise taxes. Both Harry Reid and President Obama on the other hand, say “balance” – (meaning tax increases on “the rich”), is what they expect of the commission. How are these points of view to be reconciled?
5. The CBO scoring of the bill assumes the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, raising taxes by several trillion, possibly accounting for all the “savings” from the bill over 10 years. What is the plan to prevent this massive tax increase on small businesses and the middle class?
6. We understand that necessary changes cannot be made in one step, and that control of only the House and not the Senate and White House makes progress difficult. Accepting the premise that August 2 was a drop-dead date narrowed the range of options. That said, what leverage is remaining to the conservatives and what further steps can be taken short of defeating the President and winning control of the Senate in 2012? How do we continue the fight?
7. And lest we forget, what happened to the pledge to have bills published on the Internet for a few days before a vote?

Note:
Both of our local conservative Congressmen from districts 22 and 16 voted for this bill. The Palm Beach County Tea Party is preparing a set of questions for them to help us understand their positions. Congressmen Allen West is a guest for the 8/15 PBCTP meeting and will have plenty of time to address these areas. Congressmen Rooney will also be a guest at the Labor Day Barbecue and can do the same. Watch this space.

So is it a GOOD DEAL?

So what’s in this new “deal”?

According to the Powerpoint released by the Speaker’s office (CLICK HERE), it is a good deal. Response from both sides of the aisle have been mixed though, and most are waiting to read the real bill. They better be quick though as they will likely have to vote on it tomorrow.

Here’s what seem like good things:

• No Tax Hikes are included in the bill
• Cuts more over 10 years than the debt ceiling is raised
• Cuts and caps discretionary spending
• First “tranche” is $900B increase now, second “tranche” needs to be acted on by Congress next year
• Second “tranche” of $1.5T enacted if BBA sent to the states by year end OR joint committee cuts spending (by Thanksgiving) more than another $1.5T
• Triggers require across the board cuts if caps are violated
• According to the Powerpoint, it makes it “impossible” for the Joint Committee to increase taxes

Some not so good things (not all mentioned in the Powerpoint):

• Spending cuts are back loaded – first two years are pocket change.
• Requires 12 member bipartisan “joint committee” to agree on second round of cuts – if no agreement, automatic cuts are applied to Medicare (doctors and providers get cut – not beneficiaries) and Defense. Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans and military pay are exempt
• Powerpoint claims that committee cannot raise taxes, yet one analysis implies that the Bush tax cuts will be allowed to expire – effectively Obama’s tax on “the rich”. Will have to wait and see on that one.

So is this a good deal or not? My thought is that we may have been snookered again, just like with the continuing resolution earlier in the year. The democrats orchestrated this to be resolved at the last minute and the House will be asked to vote on it without having even a full day to consider the ramifications. Washington at its UGLIEST!

I withhold my judgement until I can read the bill. So should you.

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