The Tea Party

This article is a commentary on each of the Tea Party's core beliefs. The core beliefs are those beliefs expressed at the following URL:

http://www.teaparty.org/about.php

Immigration

The Tea Party shows no mercy for illegal immigrants and no mercy for the children of illegal immigrants. In doing so, we lose many good, productive, hard working young citizens. This goes against our national history. It goes against what the US stands for. First, any person born in the United States is a US citizen even if his/her parents are illegal immigrants. Second, we should not punish the children of illegal immigrants because they did not have a choice. They had to come here with their parents. We should allow the children an opportunity to become US citizens.

domestic employment

This is one goal everyone could agree with. However, people disagree on how to reach this goal. Unfortunately, the obstacles to domestic employment are

1) the wage earner could not earn a decent paycheck if his paycheck were low enough to promote domestic employment.

2) The tax incentives for corporations moving operations overseas works against domestic employment.

3) The Tea Party views are one sided. They favor the employer over the employee instead of a balance between the two.

4) The Tea Party cares only about those who work and has no regard for the unemployed.

Strong Military

Everyone agrees we need a strong military. But the only way to have a strong military and fight the war against terrorism is to improve our military capabilities, increase our military manpower possibly by conscription and to balance the annual national budget. We should not destroy programs that help the poor in order to reach this goal. We need to increase government revenues to the point where our military is not dependent on funds borrowed from other nations.

Special Interests

This is nothing but empty campaign rhetoric. Every campaign donor is a special interest of sorts because he/she is advocating some goal that the politician shares.

Gun ownership

Some regulations concerning gun ownership must exist. We need to check the background of every person buying a gun or explosives. We wouldn't want to sell guns and explosives to a terrorist or to anyone who had terrorist training in an Arab nation or anyplace else. The myth spread by the Tea Party is that regulations of this type violate the second amendment rights. They do not. The Tea Party reminds us of the State militias. During those years, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were considered to apply to the Federal government only and not to the States. The right to own guns was a State right.

Smaller Government

The phrase sounds great and it's use as a motto attracts a lot of voters. But it is a myth. The conservative form of government is just as big and just as invasive as the liberal form of government. The conservative form of Government just is big in a different way. For example, tax breaks and tax incentives are big government encouraging businesses to take a particular course of action. Those who don't or can't follow the government's lead do not receive the tax breaks or options and hence are penalized.

Government Grants are much more effective tools to initiate research than tax breaks. Companies only do enough to qualify for the tax break and nothing more. Government grants require actual research and further government funding depends on the progress the researchers have made.

National budget and deficit spending

Everyone agrees with the general goal. However, the Tea Party is inflexible and attacks fellow Republicans who want to reach across party lines to come up with a budget plan acceptable to the majority of Congress members. This inflexibility does not reflect the intent of our founders when they wrote the Constitution. Diversity and "factions" were advocated because the end result would presumably be far better and because they provided internal checks and balances in Congress. The Tea Party's unwillingness to compromise may result in their losing Congressional seats in 2012.

Bail Out and Stimulus Package

The bail out also known as TARP has been a resounding success. It was an implementation of capitalism at the Federal level. TARP is not unconstitutional. It was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. It was executed by a Federal Agency empowered by the law and accountable to Congress and the Judicial system.

The Stimulus package was not unconstitutional. It was opposed by the Tea Party and the Republican Party, but that does not make it unconstitutional. The Constitution does not prohibit government programs. To the contrary, it calls for Congress "to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." and "shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties,

The truth is that theses programs are against the Tea Party's strict interpretation of the Constitution. The Tea Party's interpretation of the Constitution is in conflict with Alexander Hamilton's and George Washington's interpretation of the Constitution.

Reduce personal income tax

When attempting to reduce the national debt and keep a strong military, reducing personal income tax is irresponsible and reckless. It only places more debt burden on our children and grandchildren. We need to increase government revenue so we can stop borrowing from other nations to finance the war on terror.

Reduce business taxes

I agree 100%.

Political offices available to all.

I agree.

Intrusive Government Stopped

Great: The Tea Party should stop forcing their personal Christian values on all US Citizens, give up the Gay Marriage fight and abandon the Gay Marriage Amendment.

English Language.

I disagree. The Spanish language should be the second official language of our nation.

Family Values

Dictating family values is government intrusion.

Common Sense Constitution

Common sense differs from person to person. This really means abiding by the Tea Party's interpretation of the Constitution.

Conservative Self Governance.

A pure Democracy will not work in the case where the majority is wrong. That's we we have a Democratic Republic!

The Tea Party was founded by Dale Robertson. The accusation of bigotry probably originates from an incident in Houston, Texas at the Houston Tea Party society in which he allegedly was kicked out for displaying a sign or having displayed a sign at some previous event. The details of this incident are sketchy. So lets be fair in our treatment and comments about Dale Robertson. Furthermore, we should not accuse the whole party of something only a handful of members may have done.

　 Imposts and Excises , to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States."