Tea Party Speeches

Speeches on Tax Day for SouthBay Tea Party USA.

See all of them below.  Thanks, gary

  

Good afternoon and thanks to everyone for being here. Today we stand in solidarity with over eight hundred other tea parties protests across our great country- as we all say in unison- “enough is enough”.

 

In its numbers alone, this group is comparable to many of the great political movements of our nation’s history: the abolition movement, woman’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement. With them our movement shares a common thread: the belief by ordinary citizens in the transcendence of freedom as a guiding force in human history. What differentiates our movement from these others is not a desire to establish equality, but to prevent that equality from slipping away.

 

We live in perilous times. Millions among us have found their lives thrown into tumult as the waves of this great economic crisis have come crashing down upon us.

 

Our president and his administration proposes that it is capitalism itself which brought about the crisis we now find ourselves in. That free markets, left unattended and unregulated have brought about the current crisis.

 

The crux of this argument is both fallacious and wrong. In it rests the idea that free markets, left untended, will run out of control- that they are too complicated for those who work in them to understand or control. That the causes of this crisis rest in the structure of a number of complex financial instruments sprinkled liberally throughout our banking system, which were allowed to take shape in an environment of regulatory neglect.

 

Could it be that the causes of this are far simpler than those in charge would have us believe? As noted economist Thomas Sowell put it “Evasions of the obvious are often far more complicated than the plain facts.” Or as my grandma would put it a lie is far more complicated than the truth.

 

The simple answer is staring at us in the face all along: free markets did not create the conditions in which the housing bubble grew with such velocity. Rather it was government micromanagement of the economy that did. Our government, through loose monetary policy, created an environment of easy money and encouraged speculation by artificially lowering interest rates to prevent a recession in the wake of the bursting of the dot com bubble. The natural free market forces of correction which worked to shrink that last bubble were quelled by a sea of easy money created out of thin air by an administration which found the concept of the economy taking a breather after a period of unprecedented growth, politically unpalatable.

 

All this money they created out of thin air had to go somewhere. The housing market, which had for years been the target of social engineering by a government aiming to ensure that bad credit or lack of savings could not deter home ownership, provided an ample conduit into which all this new found liquidity could be driven.

 

What happened next requires minimal explanation:

US

consumers, fueled by the illusion of wealth created by ballooning home equity, went on a massive consumption binge which was in the long run was unsustainable and then it all came crashing down.

 

Our government, urged to “do something” to combat the crisis has enacted a solution intended to maintain the status quo. It is the most massive overreach of government into the private sector ever undertaken in the history of the republic. The current bill for all the bailouts and their guarantees, by the most recent account, exceeds 2/3 of the GDP of the entire country! The costs of keeping these institutions afloat which were “too big to fail” has grown too large for the country to bear.

 

From these actions, it is inferred that our government now feels its job is not only to ensure equality of opportunity, but also to ensure equality of outcome. Yet, these two conditions are impossible to reconcile: one cannot provide equality of outcome without fundamentally treating people differently. Inevitably, to achieve equality of outcome, some must be rewarded for bad behavior and others punished for good. This is the Pandora’s Box of moral hazard which our government has unleashed upon us.

 

With this massive overreach of government into the private sector, comes an unprecedented expansion of its size and cost. We hear talk of government salary controls. We hear talk of government telling health insurers what procedures they can cover, creating de facto socialized medicine. We hear talk of government taking a more prominent role in every industry, from energy to automotive, from health care to finance. Each day brings new news of greater and greater reach into our lives by the monolithic hand of

Washington

. All this financed by a $9.3 trillion loan which they intend to take out from our children. When our President observed of seeing a “see of red ink as far as the eye can see”, it now seems unclear whether he was making an observation, or a policy statement.

 

The policies that our government is seeking to carry out represent an assault upon our economic freedom and personal liberty. As Friedrich Hayek warned “By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.”

 

What is the alternative that we seek to all of this?

 

It is clear that this crisis was brought about by an excess of debt, yet the paradoxical solution the government proposes is for the public sector to step in to be the “buyer of last resort” – to borrow and spend to keep the music going. Integral to this assumption is that it is consumption, not production which brings about economic prosperity. 200 years ago, more than 80% of the people on earth lived in utter, abject poverty- yet it wasn’t their lack of consumption, or lack of desire to consume which caused their squalor. It was lack of production. Through advances in technology, industry and agriculture, that is through savings, investment and most of all, hard work, these people stepped out of poverty in droves.

 

It was the miracle of free markets, of capitalism, in which man was given freedom to innovate, freedom to take risks and freedom to enjoy the fruits of his labors, which in the past 300 years, took humanity from the agrarian age to the space age. Societies who took the road of greater collectivism, of greater more centralized control, litter the ash heap of history.

 

Greater government is not the solution. Decreasing the role of government is.

 

Our government’s micromanagement of the economy needs to end. It must cease its role as kingmaker in the financial markets by deciding which companies may survive and which may fail based on political favor. Capitalism has given us a viable mechanism for dealing with failed companies: bankruptcy. Like a phoenix from the ashes, new companies arise from the embers of failed ones to satisfy the needs of the market and to create new jobs and new wealth.

 

Our government, like our citizens, must learn to live within its means. That means balancing the budget, not in ten years time, but this presidential term. Our politicians tell us this is impossible, yet balancing the budget would only require rolling back government spending this year to…2004 spending levels. Were things really that much worse back then? The expansion of our government, financed by a sea of debts, is stifling the private sector by crowding out capital that would otherwise be available to finance more worthy projects. This must stop.

 

If government must stimulate this economy to get us out of this crisis- the best stimulus plan I can think of is for government to shrink, in both size and scope to give the private sector room to create wealth and prosperity. This means realizing that much of what we have done in the past decade with regards to economic policy has been quite foolish: we have spent beyond our means and continued to grow a massive welfare/warfare state which we can no longer afford to maintain. The solution requires us going back to basics.

 

Today, we move from beyond these tea parties and take the ideas that made this country great, of the virtues of limited government, economic freedom and fiscal prudence, into dozens of living rooms, coffee shops and businesses throughout

Los Angeles

and across

America

. This movement  is planting the seeds for even greater change in the future- in order to do that, we can no longer remain silent. We must each do our part to change the conversation in this country.

 

Each of us must take up the call to action and help to put our country back on the right track. This means speaking out: call your congressman incessantly to voice your opposition, write to your newspapers, enlighten your friends. Spread the message that there is an alternative to the steady onslaught of socialism which we are now faced with. If we do not do this, we deserve the country they will give us. As Sir Edmund Burke put it so poignantly “the only way that evil can succeed is if good men stand by and do nothing.”

 

Thanks for listening and G-d bless

America

!

 

Now its my pleasure to introduce our special guest speaker, Syndicated Talk Show Host Tammy Bruce (insert Tammy Speech here).

  

By Gary Aven

Invocation –

Let me quote from Benjamin Franklin who was self proclaimed as not necessarily being a Christian, but believing in God. 

I've lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth — That God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it. …

In a moment we will stop for a moment of silence.

• So let us remember our troops who are in harms way and ask for the preservation of their lives.
• Let us ask G_d to preserve our great nation, and to help all those who are suffering because of this recession.
•  And for G_d to help and guide us in this Tea Party movement for “We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it.” 

 

By Gary Aven

Today, at this moment, we are at a critical cross road of human history.   The foundations, freedom, and liberty of our country are about to fundamentally change for the worse if we do not do something.  Today we are here doing something.

I am here today because I am tired of just screaming at my TV.  I have been screaming liar, liar, tell the truth, tell the truth.  You wimpy newsperson challenge that statement.  Socialist.  What are you thinking…  You should know that I was also critical of the Bush administration every time we lost some of our liberty, - like travel, like freedom of communication, every time Bush did not balance the budget, I was not happy.  Benjamin Franklin said “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, will get neither liberty or safety”.  Also "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

It is time we stop this abusive massive misuse of power that we see demonstrated night after night after night on our televisions. 

This administration has a plan, / it is implementing its plan / and it is not a plan for Liberty.  You need to read the other 11 rules.

The forth branch of government, the free press is not upholding their constitutionally protected freedom of the press.  If the government and specifically its politicians are not held to the truth then all manner of evil can be perpetrated on an uninformed public.  My wife and I watch the BBC from time to time – not exactly a branch of the Republican Party - and they are presenting facts on both sides of the story.  But our media for the most part are NOT.  When a politician, drunk with power, knows that what he or she says will not be challenged by the press then the government begins to spiral out of control.  If the press only repeats error, misinformation, and downright fabrications, rather than presenting the facts and both sides of story then we have only one recourse, the people must act.  We must do what all Americans have done band together to preserve our liberty, our freedom, to preserve this greatest country on the face of the earth.

Our founding fathers and mothers saw the need for a restrained and balanced government, three branches that were designed to provide checks on the raw desire of men for power.  As a failsafe they put in the bill of rights.  The first amendment protects the press, but if the press is failing it protects the people’s right to assemble … let me just read it and celebrate the wisdom of our founders.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

We are here today because we sense that we are at a crossroads.  We see, whether we are liberal or conservative, that our congressional representatives are acting like pirates who have just found Treasure Island.  They are looting our livelihood, they are stealing our children’s future, and they are putting our country in peril. 

Some say this looks like a conspiracy.  I say no, it is not a grand organized conspiracy; it is a conspiracy of the heart and mind.  The people in power today, the press, and their supporters believe that the state is the ultimate solution to all mankind’s ills.  Their vision of Utopia is the utopian world state.  The G20 phrase of the day is the “new world order”.  I did not like it when Bush I, used the term “new world order” and it is even more dangerous today. They do not believe in the words of the Declaration of Independence, which says and I paraphrase:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all … [people]  are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among …[people], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —

·        There are four references to God in the Declaration of Independence:

·        The “laws of nature and of nature’s God” entitle the United States to independence.

·        Men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”

·        The Continental Congress appeals to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions.”

·        The signers, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Devine Providence,” pledge to each other their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

I believe in the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.  The Utopian Statist does not.

I believe in Liberty secured by a just government NOT the tyranny of a utopian statist government.

I believe the I am endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  

I believe in government, because men are not angles, but so too the government can usurp its power and must be reined in to the will of the people.  We have had a long string of abuses starting with the Bush deficits and including Bush bailouts.  

We the people may not understand all the intricacies of the economic crisis, but we are all here at this moment in history because night after night after night the story from Washington does not add up.  Hedge fund investors that should have lost because of their bad bets are being propped up by the bailouts.   Many people, Republican and Democrat alike, liked what they heard on the presidential campaign trail but now we are all alarmed at what we see as a raw power grab to turn us into a Socialist State.    

Bush’s spending was bad, but Obama’s proposed spending is double bad.  

Obama will double the Bush deficits not counting all the money spent on the “recovery”

The Tea Party of 1773 was a time like today where regular people, not political powerhouses, not people looking to gain anything for themselves but a people who knew that things were reaching a breaking point, a point of no return unless they stood up to be counted. 

We have choices today /set before us / that we will not have tomorrow. 

We have a choice to defeat the current budget bill in the next 3 weeks before it is too late.  (You must at the minimum write, email and call your congressional representatives like you have never done before.)

We have a choice of more debt for us and our children as much a $48,000 per person, or saying STOP THE SPENDING.

We have a choice between free enterprise and the property rights of individuals or the tyranny of the state.  Governments produce NOTHING, they make nothing, //  although apparently they are trying to make cars.

Large budget deficits, lead to hyper inflation which will hurt us all.  But it hurts the poor the most.  If a person owns a house it will go up in value, and have more money with inflation, if a person rents they will pay more rent and have less money.   So as I stand here today as a conservative with a heart for the poor, I say Obama’s budget is immoral to the poor.  It will hurt them, control all of us, reduce our choices, take away our liberty, lower our national standard of living and change our country for the worse.

Today is the time for action – not tomorrow

Today we have awakened – let us not fall back to sleep

Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post wrote: “The reordering of the American system will come not from these temporary interventions, into which Obama has reluctantly waded. It will come from Obama's real agenda: his holy trinity of health care, education and energy. Out of these will come a radical extension of the welfare state; social and economic leveling in the name of fairness; and a massive increase in the size, scope and reach of government. “

 

We must stop the deficit spending, the printing of money, the borrowing from China to finance radical plans to reshape America forever by through radical healthcare, education, and energy policy. 

 

DANIEL HANNAN, MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER said,  

“The worse thing [about Obamacare] is for you as the recipient of health care because you've got no control over what you get. There's no contractual relationship between you and the suppliers, so, you know, if they treat you today or next week or six weeks from now, where it's too late because your condition has already deteriorated....

“ ... there's nothing you can do about it. You are expected to queue up with a smile and be grateful for what you have…

‘ If you — listen, if you get nothing else from what I'm saying this evening, please do not make that mistake. [the mistake of Socialized medicine] If there are any congressman watching this who think, yes, it might be a bit fair, yes, it'd be a bit sort of cozy, you know, I promise you, it is worse for doctors. It's worse for patients. It's worse for taxpayers....” 

$631 Billion for a Health Plan is a major part of the budget deficit, which spends money we don’t have for a result that will take away our freedom.  This is all money they will print to achieve their goals of socialized medicine.

You think health care is expensive now...wait until it's free!"

Stop this Budget Bill, Stop the Spending, Stop the Bailouts, Stop the printing of money.

 

Today is the time for action – not tomorrow

Today we have awakened – let us not fall back to sleep

Today you can choose liberty OR tyranny.

 

 

By Christine

Hello and good afternoon everyone.  My name is Christine, I’m 26, a tax payer, and an American.

 

In his first inaugural speech Thomas Jefferson stated that “a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."

 

These words cannot resonate any clearer than today of all days, April 15.  A day that is less infamous than many yet commands attention from all, for it is tax day.  It is on this day that our government not only calls for, but demands, payment for our hard work.  Yet it seems that the harder we work, the more the government wishes to spend, and when the coffers run dry they once again turn to us to refill them.  But it is beyond our own pockets that they have started to reach.  They have turned to our children and our grandchildren, the unborn to pay the debts of today.  And it is in this reckless sacrifice of the future that we have been compelled to gather here today.

 

 

And so we stand here on the shores of our great country, just as those in Boston did so long ago in protest to the actions of government.  Looking back, the Sons of Liberty had started something that night of December 16, 1773 when they dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.  They had lit the fuse that would fire the “shot heard ‘round the world” just one and a half years later at

Lexington

.

 It is now 236 years since and we are not much different from those patriots of long ago.  Just like you and I they came from many backgrounds.  They were carpenters, common laborers, and merchants.  They were English, French, and Portuguese.  Just like you and I they had a government reaching beyond their means.  They had the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, and the Tea Act.  We have the TARP, the Stimulus, the Omnibus, and the Budget.  But most importantly, just like you and I, they were united in their beliefs of promoting liberty and limited government. 

 

The encroachment of government into our lives and our wallets is not new.  As Thomas Paine said, “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”  And we indeed have gone wrong.  We have strayed from that one thing that makes us singularly unique, that one thing that defines us as a country, our Constitution.  It has come under attack; a usurpation of government officials, lawmakers, and media.  The Constitution of the

United States of America

is in need of a strong people to uphold it.  We are those people.

So as we leave here today, let this not be the end.  We must continue to make our voices heard.  We must continue to take action.  We must work to restore the principles that our country was founded on.  We must return the government to the People as our Founding Fathers intended it to be. 

____________________________________________________

  

By Art Villa

Hello Tax Day TEA Party!!!  What a great event!

My name is Art Villa and I am here with my beautiful wife Tess and our two young children.  My ancestors came to our great country from Italy about 100 years ago.  Tess came from the Philippines with her family 30 years ago.  All were attracted to this land of the free… to this land of opportunity…   I have relatives in the produce business, the furniture business, the construction business, real estate, & many other small businesses which are the backbone of our country.  Most want to work hard and prosper and leave a better place for future generations.

So why are we here? 

-          Because our government is out of control.

-          Because we tired of all the nonsense…

-          Because we are angry at all of the games…

 

If I had to pinpoint who I am angry at, I would have to say both Republican and Democratic politicians alike.  I am mad at the Incumbent Party – you know, our entrenched career politicians – and the “Big Money” Special Interests that they serve.

 

At the heart of our troubles is the vicious cycle of trading campaign contributions for special treatment which kills healthy competition on two fronts. 

-          On the public side, incumbent politicians build up huge campaign war chests funded by Special Interests which give them a huge advantage over challengers.  So how is this healthy and fair?  And who are these incumbent politicians beholden to once they get re-elected???

-          In the private sector, companies grow too big and too influential… because of special spending programs and tax breaks that they gain as part of the campaign contribution game.  Have you heard the phrase “too big to fail”?  Well, how does a company get “too big to fail”?  By killing off healthy competition!

We are Americans!  We expect a level playing field – not some rigged game!  We don’t want special programs jammed down our throat which benefit BIG Business or community organizing groups at the expense of the taxpayer!

 

Again, why are we here?

-          Is it because we are radicals or patriots?  PATRIOTS!

-          Is it because it is time to get our country back?  YES!

-          Is it to send a strong message to incumbent politicians that this movement is bigger than they are?  YES!

 

Are we are here to demand that they:

-          end the wasteful spending?  YES

-          provide a balanced budget that doesn’t mortgage our future.  YES

-          legislate and govern for our common national interests… not for Special Interests…?  YES

-          Provide bold leadership on massive tax reform?   YES

Tax reform is an important part of the solution.  Okay so how many FairTaxers do we have here…  Let’s hear from you!

 

I became active with this TEA Party movement after first being enthusiastic about the FairTax.

 

Let me be up front that the FairTax is not specifically endorsed by this TEA Party though many of us believe it should be on everyone’s radar.  Nick Garzilli and Bill Spillane, where are you?  Nick and Bill have some hand-outs and will stick around after the general rally to discuss the FairTax so please see them for more info.

 

There are great videos on YouTube about the FairTax which I encourage folks to check out. 

In short, the FairTax ends all taxation on productivity and savings and replaces it with a simple consumption tax on NEW goods and services. 

 

-          How would you like to never have to file an income tax return again? 

-          How would you like see jobs and prosperity that have been chased away due to high Payroll and Corporate taxes come back to our lands? 

-          How would you like a multi-trillion dollar private sector stimulus package for our country? 

-          How would you like to end tax breaks for Special Interests? 

-          How would you like to get your whole paycheck without the government reaching into your wallet as you earn? 

-          How would you like to control when you pay more taxes by choosing when to consume more?

-          How would you like a monthly tax refund for consumption up to the poverty level and puts family survival first ahead of government funding? 

-          How would you like to eliminate highly regressive payroll tax on wages of the working poor and middle class?  With the FairTax, Social Security and Medicare are funded out of the general fund.

Folks, this TEA Party is a great movement and it is time that we become “active citizens”.  Being passive over the past decades has not worked in our favor.  Let’s get our country back!

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.  Please let’s continue this effort and bring common sense back to our country.

Thank you