We Can Be Heroes

Fellow Patriots!

Since this is a Tea Party, I’m going to get you riled up.  Let’s start with this — Federal government spending has increased 21% in the past two years.  Let me ask you, have you all gotten 21% raises?  Has the value of your house gone up 21%?  Have your investments increased 21%?   So tell me, are you ready to stop the insane spending by our government?

There are only 17 days until we begin the limited government revolution in America.  There are only 17 days until we fire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.  There are only 17 days until we patriots have a lot more to say about what goes on in Lansing and Washington!

This is a momentous time.  Just when we thought there were no more heroes, we discovered through the Tea Party movement that we the people are the heroes.  Our movement has accomplished extraordinary things.  We have fueled conservative activism and energy that seemed unimaginable just 18 months ago.  We reintroduced the concept of limited government into mainstream political discussion.  We taught nervous politicians that “We the People” is no longer a trite patriotic phrase, but rather the battle cry of an organized movement with tremendous clout.

And yet, the Tea Party movement has many important things left to do.  First, we all need to vote in 17 days.  After this election, we need to actively recruit and support the next wave of limited government champions for 2012 and beyond.  The Tea Party revolution is not just about one election; it is about fundamentally rejecting Big Government for generations to come.

For almost two years, the Tea Party movement has been warning America that many of our government leaders are dragging us down a deadly path that is contrary to our Constitution and our founding principles.

Let’s examine the bitter reality of the predicament that these traitorous leaders have put our country in:

• There is no money left in the Social Security trust fund.  Every penny has been lent to the general fund of the government, and it has all been wastefully spent.  As baby boomers start to retire, the government will have to either raise taxes or cut their benefits.  If the managers of a private pension fund did this, they would be thrown in jail.
• The government is borrowing 43% of what it is spending this year.  It is clearly living beyond its means.  If a business did this, it would be declared bankrupt and its officers would be fired.
• The federal government has 380,000 employees who make over $100,000 per year, an increase of 50% since Obama took office.  We don’t need millions of overpaid bureaucrats in Washington watching over us and telling us what we can’t do.  My six year old son needs babysitting.  I don’t.
• The U6 unemployment rate, which includes workers who have simply stopped looking for work, is now at 17%.  It was 12% when Obama was elected.  So, after trillions in bailouts and stimulus spending, the U6 unemployment rate is five points worse.  The radicals are not only squandering our future, they are ruining our present.  Guess which city in America has the lowest unemployment rate?  Washington D.C.!  Guess which city has the richest suburbs?  Washington D.C.!  The only things booming in America are Big Government and the production of purple SEIU shirts.
• In the year 2000, Michigan ranked 19^thamong the states in per capita income.  Today, we rank 37^th.  In just ten years, we have become a national laughing stock, and businesses avoid our state like the plague.  Jennifer Granholm is probably grateful for term limits, because otherwise she would be fired by angry Michiganders in November.
• In just four years, Obama will accumulate more debt than the previous 43 presidents combined over 233 years.  His multi-year budget will leave us 20 trillion dollars in debt.  If you lined up 20 trillion one dollar bills end-to-end in a straight line, it would reach from the earth to the sun and back 20 times.
• 30% percent of personal income in America now comes from government transfer payments of some type.  America is becoming a nation of dependents and freeloaders.  Our radical leaders would rather have government bureaucrats handing out food stamps than business owners handing out paychecks.   Here’s what hope and change has gotten us so far:  A record 36 million Americans are now on food stamps, including 25% of all children.
• The government took over 17% of the economy with Obamacare.  The government also took over GM, Chrysler, and a large number of banks.  There are now more unionized government workers than unionized private sector workers.
• The radicals say they will only tax the rich, but if the government was required to balance its budget this year by raising taxes rather than borrowing from our children and from China, they would have to tax 100% of the income of everyone making $75,000 or more.  The radicals in Washington will eventually obliterate the middle class in order to implement their socialist agenda.

We are facing the onset of the biggest political crisis in America since the Civil War.  On November 2^nd, we are going to choose the future identity of our country.  Our domestic enemies will vote for more socialism, bigger government, end-runs around the Constitution, bailing out failed businesses and irresponsible people, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and weakness abroad.  We patriots are going to vote for free markets, limited government, the rule of law based on the U.S. Constitution, personal responsibility, secure borders, and a strong national defense.  In other words, we are voting to protect and nurture the American Dream.

The choices we make as a country in the 2010 and 2012 elections will decide everything.  If we have not removed Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the other radicals from office by 2012, then may our children forgive us, and may God have mercy on our souls.  If we fail, the America of Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, and Reagan will no longer exist.

Our mission is clear.  In the next two elections, we need to replace Big Government apologists with limited government champions in at least 39 seats in the House, ten seats in the Senate, and one seat in the White House.  And then we need to hold every single politician in America accountable to the Constitution, no matter which side of the aisle they sit on.

Month after month and year after year, our elected officials need to hear from us, clearly and loudly, that we will not tolerate backsliding toward Big Government.  It does us no good to elect false conservatives and RINO’s who will move us along toward socialism just a little bit slower than the liberals.

The blessings of liberty require eternal vigilance by the people.  I’m wearing my father’s paratrooper wings on my shirt today.  These wings are the greatest gift he left me.  They remind me that millions of brave men and women in the armed forces have risked their lives to defend America and its principles.  We cannot allow the bloodshed of our military heroes to be wasted.  Therefore, we must be political heroes.  As Reagan said, it is now up to us to save America and to preserve the freedom that our soldiers sacrificed so much for.

To win this political battle, we need to recruit the votes of every like-minded relative, friend, and co-worker.  In the name of everything that is exceptional about America, I am challenging you to convince the political fence-sitters to get off their asses and help us rescue America on November 2^nd!  Convince them that there is nothing more important than to join us in this political house cleaning!  It all comes down to this.  We the People can take a giant step toward saving this country in 17 days.  Not Glenn Beck.  Not Fox News.  Us!  You and I!  We are going to be the heroes!

And this election is just the beginning.  As the years unfold, we need to challenge ourselves and our fellow patriots to become precinct delegates, poll watchers, campaign volunteers, fund raisers, letter writers, e-mail generators, phone callers, and media monitors.  We need to be the defenders of liberty and the guardians of our sacred Constitution decade after decade.  We need to be the engine of a new America.  We patriots need to be the heroes responsible for saving this country!

Thank you.