Chip Tarbutton Posting Demands on Goodlatte's Door
The Roanoke Tea Party had a busy weekend. With all of the events that went on this weekend, I think it is inevitable for there to be questions and clarifications. Let me make sure all of our cards are on the table and answer some common questions.
What actually happened this weekend?
We had a rally outside of Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s office at noon on Saturday. We then posted a list of demands on the Congressman’s door. They can be found on the first page of this document. Fiscal Sanity Rally (1) (There is also a flier for our 4-15 Reverse Town Hall on there too if you’d like to print and share with your friends.)
I gave a speech that outlined what we expect from our Congressman, the text of that speech can be found here.
We were in contact with Congressman Goodlatte’s office prior to the event and hoped he would be there. While he was not able to attend, he did send a statement reaffirming his desire to cut spending (which is good) but reiterating the “business as usual” approach to accomplishing this (which is not good). You can read his statement for yourself here.GSPA
Greg Aldridge worked from the Fox Radio Roanoke AM 910 studios and we simulcast the protest. After that Greg, and other patriots from the 9th District has a private meeting with Congressman Morgan Griffith to discuss the same fiscal issues as well as discuss the recent incident where the police were involved in a protest at Griffith’s Christiansburg office. You can read a brief summary of the meeting here.
Patriots who met with Congressman Griffith on 4-2
Congressman Goodlatte and others want to cut $60 billion out of the budget. Isn’t that going to help. That’s an awful lot of money.
The deficit just for this year will likely be around $1.5 trillion. While $60 billion is a lot of money, it is only about 4% of the likely budget deficit this year. That small amount won’t have a meaningful impact on the overall fiscal mess we are in. And the actual budget cuts that the Democratically controlled Senate and White House want are dramatically less than the ineffective $60 billion. These cuts are akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in relation to the $14 trillion deficit and the $100 trillion in unfunded mandates for Social Security and Medicare.
What can the Republicans do? They only control the House and they can’t pass anything without compromising with the Democrats.
We would like to see all of our local Congressman not budge an inch on addressing the budgetary issues in a meaningful way. That means:
- Defunding Obamacare
- Defunding unconstitutional and useless Federal agencies like the Department of Education for starters.
- Auditing the Federal Reserve and controlling the private bankers that are likely robbing this nation.
- Making meaningful cuts in discretionary and non-discretionary spending
They should vote no on any budget that doesn’t do these things. This would risk a government shut down, something that we feel the GOP should risk. However, the Congress has a unique opportunity to force drastic cuts in spending by simply not increasing the debt limit. This one step would effectively create a Balanced Budget Amendment with teeth and force the Federal government to borrow zero dollars for this years budget, effectively cutting $1.5 trillion in spending. This is a drastic step, but since neither party has the political will to make meaningful cuts, this would effectively do that. And the House can do it unilaterally, so the White House and the Senate can’t stop it.
This is what we would like to see all of our Congressman support in the next month or so, when the debt limit vote comes up.
If there is a shutdown it will cause real issues right? I have heard all sorts of dire predictions from the Democrats and some Republicans.
This is a complex issue. Let’s clarify some terms. One young lady at the Goodlatte rally asked me to explain this to people and I think she was 1000% correct. If you are reading this, thank you!
A shutdown means that a spending bill cannot be agreed to and non-essential functions will be cut until a budget is agreed upon. So Social Security checks will continue to be sent, the military will still operate normally. Most Americans will feel no direct impact. Both sides of the aisle will likely politicize this if it occurs, but the overall impact will not cause a huge issue.
Not raising the debt limit does create a very challenging situation because the Federal government would have to, in one fell swoop, cut out over $1 trillion in spending out of this years budget. That will be a real challenge, but will force the kind of systemic changes to the Federal government conservatives have always dreamed of.
The other issue is the perception that markets would have that we are defaulting on our existing debt. That is the nightmare scenario described by some doomsayers.
Most pols equate not raising the debt ceiling to default. That is not accurate. Let’s remember that the Treasury still rakes in quite a bit of money in revenues — it took in $604 billion (seasonally adjusted) in the third quarter of 2010. In FY 2010 the annual debt service was some $414 billion, working out to an average of about $104 billion per quarter. Although the numbers won’t be quite the same going forward, the debt service will soak up only about one-sixth of the incoming revenues.
So there is plenty of cash flow for the Treasury to honor its existing debts, if a default would really be that catastrophic. Also keep in mind that even if the debt ceiling weren’t increased, the Treasury could still roll over its debt as existing bonds matured. The only thing the Treasury couldn’t do would be to issue more debt.
The big argument here is that the world will lose confidence in the United States government and the dollar even if there is the perception there will be a default. News flash people, that is already happening.
Why are you giving Goodlatte, Griffith and Hurt such a hard time when the Democrats are the real culprits?
First of all, the Democrats in DC in general, and Senator’s Webb and Warner specifically are beneath contempt. They have failed their constituents in every conceivable way. There is not even a faint hope these worthless socialist tools will take any meaningful action. Thankfully, Webb is retiring himself next year. We are stuck with Warner until 2014.
But there are courageous members of the House with names like Paul, West and Bachman. Our Congressmen can join with these members and fight for fiscal sanity every step of the way. They can stop compromising principle and do the right thing right now by saying no to the debt limit increase. Right now our Congressmen are being cautious and looking at the “way we’ve always done things” as a guide.
The old ways are broken. The older ways; limited government and following the Constitution are still the right thing to do and a return to those principles are our only hope for a return to fiscal sanity. The time for compromise is over.
Hardy souls who braved the winds for the Fiscal Sanity Rally
That’s all I have right now. God bless those hardy sould who made it out to the rally on Saturday and braved the wind tunnel like weather. It is a priviledge to work on behalf of such dedicated people. Check out out Facebook page for more pics from the event.
Chip Tarbutton
President
Roanoke Tea Party
