Time for a Tea Party Agenda

A wise friend of mine once said, “There is nothing new under the sun or in politics. You should steal a good idea as often as you can.”



In 1994, Newt Gingrich had a brilliant idea. He offered the Contract with America. It was a list of ten things the GOP would do if the American people gave it the majority in the House.



As we go into this fall’s election, the Tea Party needs to do the same thing. This Wednesday, the Tea Party Caucus will meet on Capitol Hill in DC. The members of the Tea Party Caucus will be there, as will a number of leaders from various Tea Party groups.



I am fortunate and have been given the opportunity to speak to the Caucus for a few minutes.



I am going to talk about a Tea Party Agenda for this fall.



We need something specific to tell the American people that if you elect Tea Party candidates to office in the Senate and the House, this is what we are going to do. We need good, simple and workable ideas.



The Tea Party Agenda should have five or six items on it. These need to be 90% issue. If you are not familiar with the term “90% issue” it is a term I use to refer to issues that 90% of Americans will agree with.



Why five or six issues? It is simple. The leadership of the House of Representatives is not sympathetic to the Tea Party movement. John Boehner will give it lip service but last year under his watch, the House approved spending that was 3% higher than when Nancy Pelosi ran the House. He surrendered on every major issue including the budget and the debt ceiling. Eric Cantor has shown scant more leadership, with his Young Guns PAC helping out RINO Richard Lugar against Tea Party Candidate Richard Mourdock.



These need to be issues that the leadership of the House and the new Republican leadership in the Senate have to address. We need to find good issues that would simply be too painful for the leadership to ignore or let die. We need those 90% issues that are popular with the American people. We need issues we can point to as victories next year.



What are those issues?



This is where I need your help. This movement remains a leaderless movement. It is bottom up, grassroots. I could stand up and announce the five or six items that would be the Tea Party Agenda. That and fifty dollars is going to get me a small cup of coffee at Starbucks.



These issues must come from the people, so I am asking each of you to do the following. Take the link to this blog and share it on every Tea Party and liberty website you can. Share it on Facebook and on the pages of Facebook groups. We need people to come on to this site and suggest items for the Tea Party Agenda.



I need people to come to Tea Party Nation because there needs to be one central site.



I am going to make the first contribution for what should be on the Tea Party Agenda. Louisiana Congressman John Fleming has proposed HR 2680. This is the Federal Realignment and Closure Commission bill. The idea behind the bill is that a commission goes through the Federal budget, looking for agencies and programs that are wasteful, duplicative or have just failed. These would be targeted for elimination.



The commission would submit its findings to Congress for an up or down vote, without amendments. Pork barrel projects and earmarks could not be protected. Then it would go on to the President for signature or veto.



With the Government Accountability Office having identified hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, this is an easy 90% issue. 90% of Americans are outraged by government waste and fraud. 90% of Americans believe we are spending too much and our debt is now a major problem.



What other issues can we put into a Tea Party Agenda?



This is a grassroots effort and we need your input.



What issues should we put in the Agenda?