Christine Butler and Paul Spain at Wellington 10/7

Christine is the former Chairman of the Broward Republican Party (2014-2015), Vice Chairman (2012-2014) and Chairman of Congressional District #23 serving on the RPOF State Executive Committee in 2015.

Christine is an attorney in private practice in Boca Raton, serving Palm Beach and Broward Counties, and a Certified Public Accountant. She specializes in corporate law and business transactions and has years of experience working with both national law and accounting firms serving clients from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach. Prior to her law career, she worked as an Audit Manager/CPA with a Big 4 accounting firm. Christine has also served on the boards of non-profit organizations. She has been a resident of South Florida for 40-plus years and is a graduate of Florida universities, including the University of Miami School of Law, where she served on Law Review. She now resides in Jupiter with her husband.

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Paul Spain is a driven innovator and fresh face in Florida public policy. He is ready to ensure that the interests of District 18 are protected in Congress. Paul is an advocate for better fiscal practices and renewed ideals for education. Spain will dedicate the time and energy to attain results for the citizens of District 18.

A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, Paul has a lifetime of community service including Chambers of Commerce, Kiwanis Club, a current member of the College of Financial Planning with Advanced Planning Certifications (AAMS, CRPS), and a member of Maggie’s List, which promotes and supports efforts by women to hold public office. He is the father of two and has three grandchildren.

Heritage Action Candidate Forum

Last week in Greenville, South Carolina, Heritage Action hosted a Presidential Candidate Forum at which 10 of the Republican candidates participated. Unlike the two cable news debates, this event avoided pitting the candidates against each other, and actually focused on policy.

Stretching from 4:00 in the afternoon to after 9:00pm with only a short break, each candidate was given about 20 minutes on stage, with questions provided from a panel of Heritage Sentinels and CEO Michael Needham. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley closed each session by providing a personal story about the candidate and asking them to expand on it. What came across was an in-depth look at their positions on issues, and a sampling of their human side – some that have not been seen before on the campaign trail.

From this unique format, a very good contrast can be found, and it is worth at least sampling the video from the candidates you are interested in. Links to those segments on the Heritage Action youtube channel can be found below.

Although all of the candidates were enthusiastically received by the audience of about 900 sentinels on the floor and over 10,000 more in the stands of Bon Secours Wellness Arena, two candidates really stood out.

Ted Cruz rallied the crowd with the theme of “don’t elect a President to manage the decline of America”, and was clearly the policy favorite with talk of judicial retention elections, a flat tax, and “breaking the cartel”. But it was Carly Fiorina, when asked by Governor Haley what her most difficult job as a leader has been, who spoke from the heart about the anguish that comes from having to fire a close associate who, although competent and a satisfactory performer, proved to be ethically challenged and could no longer be trusted. Her answer revealed a very admirable mix of courage, compassion and loyalty to the goals of the enterprise.

Following is a brief synopsis of the major points made by the candidates, in order of their appearance. Click on their picture to see the Heritage video of their segment.

Jeb Bush Need for “disruption”, “change the culture” Block grants to states for Medicaid, school vouchers, zero based budgeting Gridlock is dangerous – Congress will come along with right leader Energy – states should decide offshore drilling, expand leases, support XL No federal control of education but states need high standards	Scott Walker Cancel Iran Deal Send power back to the states Defund Planned Parenthood, repeal Obamacare Refundable health tax credits, cross state lines, HSAs Approve XL Eliminate NLRB – make all states “right to work”
Ben Carson Congress should call Obama’s bluff on Planned Parenthood Seal the border, cut off the “goodies”, farms need workers but no citizenship Eliminate regulations, implement a flat tax Obama doesn’t get to decide if we are a Christian Nation Was radical liberal until heard Reagan speak	Ted Cruz Don’t need next president to manage the decline of America Need someone as conservative as Obama is liberal to fix things Break the “cartel”, repeal Obamacare, implement flat tax Judicial retention elections to rein in rogue judges School choice is civil rights issue of our time Day of appeasement and apology for America must end
Rick Santorum “Blue collar conservative” Flat tax, stop illegal immigration, incentivise manufacturing Supports Ex-Im bank, federal minimum wage Refugees – all the Syrians are Muslim, where are the Christians? Reform social security by indexing retirement age	Marco Rubio Reform education – emphasize alternatives to college, trade schools, etc Must address debt and deficit, reform social security by extending age for younger people Moral clarity on foreign policy, expand military, take care of veterans Immigration reform: close border, e-verify, visa tracking, entry based on merit not family Need president with “sense of urgency”, term limits for Congress
Rand Paul Lower taxes, less regulation, defend 2nd amendment Take message to new audiences Resist encroachments on religious liberty Too many government agencies have swat teams Reform social security and medicare with higher retirement age	Carly Fiorina Fix tax code – make it 3 pages long We never roll back regulations – just talk, want to do After winning Senate – should have made a difference Can lead congress through technology, public pressure Core values matter
Bobby Jindal Religious liberty created the USA Need to fire everyone in DC to make things work Don’t accept there is no way to end Obamacare with Obama in White House If Republican party can’t do the job, create a new one that can Education dollars should follow the children	Chris Christie Make the GOP live up to its rhetoric Entitlement reform – raise retirement age, eliminate for those >$400K retirement income Freedom of religion not only for churches, but officials must follow the law Would enforce federal marijuana laws on the states Education – refinance loans, have national service option , colleges should itemize bills

Honor Flight – October 24th

Dear Friends,

Please join Southeast Florida Honor Flight on Saturday, October 24th as we welcome home our WWII Heroes from visiting Washington, DC for the day.

Please report to:

US/American Airlines Terminal Level 2, Concourse A/B (Across from Rooney’s restaurant). Park in short term parking. The flight lands at approximately 8:20pm. Operation Homecoming volunteers report to the airport at 6:30pm to begin setting up at the terminal. Please report to Palm Beach International at a time that best suits you and/or your group.

SE FL Honor Flight Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honorflight?fref=ts
Website: http://www.honorflightsefl.org
Operation Homecoming updates on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1676178019286955/

Southeast Florida Honor Flight truly appreciates your participation.

“We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” -Will Rogers

Andrea
Operation Homecoming Coordinator
Southeast Florida Honor Flight

Honor Flight Welcoming Committee

Some pictures of Terry Gallagher and Brian Mast coming home with WWII heroes from DC on the Honor Flight at PBIA to a welcoming committee of 100’s of flag waving thankful and appreciative patriots.

Brunch with Senate Candidate Ron DeSantis

We have eyes to see and ears to hear – please let us use them!

Visit his full bio here:

Marion Frank on Freedomworks Event

The Palm Beach County Tea Party was in attendance at the FreedomWorks event on 9/12 in Orlando FL, along with over 2500 patriots from all around the country. FreedomWorks was founded to fight for liberty and has brought together some of the best and brightest minds of the liberty movement. They have expanded their ambitions from a free-market think tank to a service center for the grassroots freedom movement across the whole country, encompassing Tea Parties, 9-12 groups and Conservatives.

Their urgent mission right now is to grow the “Freedom Caucus” in the House of Representatives. In order to be a part of the “Freedom Caucus” members must show that they consistently uphold conservative values, such as defunding Obamacare, balancing the budget, securing our borders, ending taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, supporting the VA and most urgently trying to replace Speaker John Boehner with Mark Meadows. Some of the Freedom Caucus members were at FreedomWorks and spoke to the crowd. They included Ted Yoho, John Fleming, Ron DeSantis, Mark Meadows, Tom Massie and Tim Huelskamp. The frustration was palpable coming from the Congressmen about not being able to get done the things they campaigned for because the House and Senate leadership, namely John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have decided to cave on every important issue so they can appear to get along better with the Obama administration. After getting a huge majority in the House and a slim majority in the Senate, things are actually worse than when the Democrats ran the Senate. We have a Republican leadership problem and the only way to fix that is to change the leadership.

A straw poll was taken at the event. All ticket holders could vote for their first and second choice for President. Our very special guest speaker, Glenn Beck read the winners at the conclusion of his speech. At first Glenn said that Donald Trump had won the straw poll. After the audience booed, he said he was only kidding. Donald Trump came in third place with 8%, Dr. Ben Carson in second place with 12% and Ted Cruz was the run away winner with 41%. It it true that Glenn Beck’s audience, Tea Partiers and 9-12ers are more conservative than the average Republican voter, so it came as no surprise that Ted Cruz was the big winner.

We left the event pumped up with enthusiasm. The speakers gave us some hope that Boehner may be replaced within the next few weeks, as there may be enough votes in the House to turn it around. Not so much in the Senate. There are really only 2 definite votes in the Senate to remove McConnell, that being Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. We need better Senators in the next election.

Freedomworks 9/12 Summit Spotlights Freedom Caucus

Glenn Beck, who ended the 9/12 Freedomworks event in Orlando by announcing that Ted Cruz had won 41% in a straw poll of the thousands of attendees, at first joked that Donald Trump had won. (Trump actually came in third with 8%, and Ben Carson was second with 12%). The groans in the audience indicated that many prefer the steadfast conservatism of Cruz over the Trump phenomenon.

I mention this first, as it is indicative of the difficult year that is to come.

Glenn Beck also believes it will be a difficult year, even comparing it to 1968. In a reference to the Chicago riots of that year surrounding the Democratic convention, where the forces of Gene McCarthy battled it out with the Humphrey “establishment”, Beck suggested that the circus to surround the 2016 Philadelphia convention may “burn that city to the ground”.

Freedomworks was the key organizer of the 2009 “March on Washington”, in which many of us participated. With 1-2 million people in front of the Capitol (estimates vary), those were heady times filled with a combination of outrage over Obama’s actions and optimism that with enough of us working together, we could take our country back.

Today’s reality is different from what was imagined six years ago. A conservative uprising took back the House in 2010, along with many state legislatures and governors mansions, and then the Senate in 2014. But our presidential standard bearer Mitt Romney failed to take the fight to Obama in 2012 and little has actually changed. The Obama agenda marches on, with many victories and few defeats. There is a general feeling that the Republican leadership in both houses are either not up to the task of effective resistance, or worse, in thrall to the special interests that like the status quo just fine.

The conference highlighted members of the “Freedom Caucus” – a group of legislators who seek a change to the status quo. One of their members, Mark Meadows, is leading the fight to replace Speaker John Boehner. A number of other members spoke of the difficulty of the fight, of how they were ostracized by the insiders, losing key committee assignments and worse, as the Republican elites circled the wagon to protect their interests.

Currently, the Freedom Caucus consists of about 42 members – less than 10% of the 425 seats in the House of Representatives. Their mission is to give a voice to the countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them. Given recent polls, that group would be a large majority of the country. At the conference we heard from Caucus members Ted Yoho (FL3), Mark Meadows (NC11), Ron DeSantis (FL6), John Fleming (LA4), Tom Massey (KY4) and Tim Huelskamp (KS1). All are committed to finding a way to resist the Obama juggernaut, and the current focus of the fight is to replace John Boehner. Freedomworks CEO Adam Brandon thinks they may succeed and Boehner may not last out the year.

Currently there is no Freedom Caucus in the Senate, unless you count Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Most will say that although Mitch McConnell has to go, there is no clear path to make that happen.

If there was a theme to this conference, it was that we should not lose hope, that there are legislators in Washington ready to fight the good fight on our behalf, and they deserve our support and protection. That support is the number one priority of Freedomworks, followed by fighting the regulatory state and promoting pro-growth economics.

The conference though, was originally promoted as a venue for the Presidential candidates. I suspect many signed up originally for this reason (at least I did). Yes, it is important to support the good work of the Freedom Caucus, but given the realities of the Congress and their inability to counter the President, it is the 2016 Presidential campaign that should be the primary focus of every conservative activist everywhere.

Which brings us back to Donald Trump, and why he is leading in the polls. On the one hand, Trump has not presented enough policy detail to determine if he is “conservative enough” to do the right things if he becomes President, and it is difficult to support him until his plan for the country becomes clear. What he does represent though is a “disruptive force” – a rolling cannonball who will go to Washington and roll over the kind of obstacles that tie the hands of even reform-minded leaders. Many pundits have concluded that Trump is leading in the polls because voters are rejecting “insiders”. Another explanation could be that they are rejecting those candidates who “talk the talk” but like so many who were sent to Congress in 2010 and 2012, do not have the courage or the ability to create the change that is needed.

To right the ship of state will take some well-placed disruptions that re-order the status quo. Trump seems like a candidate who could do that, being at the same time self-funded and untethered by conventional wisdom. If the other candidates, who we know to be true conservatives, would adopt the Trump world view that “creative destruction” can be applied to government as well as business, they would make themselves into much more electable candidates in the current political climate of anger and desperation.

Next weekend, Heritage Action will be hosting 12 of the presidential candidates at their grassroots event in Greenville, SC. I look forward to that meeting to see if there is a different message than Freedomworks presented, and will report on it next week.

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Palm Beach County Tea Party leaders were volunteers at the Freedomworks event, including Mel and Barbara Grossman, Terry Gallagher and Marion Frank.
For Marion’s take on the event see: Freedomworks Event

Liberty Beats “The Right To Be Left Alone”

Public Hearing on the County Budget – What to expect

Candidate Night October 5

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Moderator: Michael Williams
8-time Emmy Award winner, co-anchors NewsChannel 5 at 5:30, 6 and 11 pm.

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Don’t miss this opportunity to get to know YOUR Candidates!
Thus far we have had confirmations of at least 7 candidates with more coming in.
We plan on giving YOU an opportunity to ask questions.
Please RSVP below.
Tell a friend!

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