Santa Fe Tea Party: T.E.A. Party Rally - January 19, 2010

Saturday, January 16, 2010

T.E.A. Party Rally - January 19, 2010

RALLY AT THE ROUNDHOUSE

The Albuquerque Tea Party has organized a rally to be held at the Roundhouse on Tuesday, January 19th in conjunction with the opening day of the Legislative Session. We hope all Santa Fe T.E.A. Partiers will join them!

9:00: Go to your legislators offices and introduce yourself. Chances are you will only meet the Assistants, not the Legislator, but that is OK. Let them know that you will be observing the session. You might want to leave a short letter stating your positions on the various things that will be covered in this session - specifically the budget, taxes, etc. Also mention that you are supporting the Photo Voter ID bill.

10-11:00: Join the ABQ people on the Paseo de Peralta side of the Capitol. Bring your signs! We'll greet Legislators as they come into the Roundhouse.

Noon: The session is scheduled to start at noon and our Patriots will go into the Roundhouse to observe. Signs have to be left outside. Please wear your T.E.A. Party shirts (contact us for more information) so that the Legislators will recognize us.

Afternoon: Attend committee hearings! This is most important! Legislators need to know that there is a conservative / common sense presence watching and listening to them as they make their decisions. Hearing schedules are not set in stone. To make sure you know what room and what time a specific committee is meeting, please sign up for text alerts by emailing us at SantaFePatriots@live.com.

For more information, visit the Albuquerque Tea Party website at www.albuquerqueteaparty.com.

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Text of speech at the 4/15/2010 rally

NOW IS THE TIME!

Leading up to the first tea party one year ago, the comment I heard most often was: I can’t believe something like is going to happen in SANTA FE! Well, we did it last April 15, then again on September 12 and now ---- look at this turnout today!

We need to thank the many people whose efforts have allowed these rallies to be held. These volunteers have donated their time, their money, and their effort to be able to make these rallies happen and hopefully we have given a public voice to your frustrations and your fears. I also want to say thank you the hundreds of you who have gotten involved in the political process by writing letters, sending emails, making phone calls, attending hearings at the Capitol. As Jared Hamilton said, our efforts were instrumental in stopping same- day voter registration. Our efforts have stopped two tax increases, and we are just beginning.

There are some who want to see a “fundamental transformation” of our country. But we don’t need to reinvent the United States of America. We just need to get back to what made us great. And for that, we can simply revisit the wisdom of our early politicians.

“I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt the greatest danger to be feared. We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choices between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude.” Thomas Jefferson

“Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.” Rutherford B. Hayes

This wisdom is timeless … no debt, no regret. Today, our elected officials are doing just the opposite. They spend, then tax, and when taxation isn’t enough, they borrow, then they spend, then tax, then borrow. Our elected officials have a problem understanding the Constitution, the role of the government, fiscal responsibility, and about prioritizing. Which reminds me …. Shouldn’t they be focused on jobs? I thought that’s what the stimulus was for. So I am saying …. ENOUGH is ENOUGH. Are you with me?

Ladies and gentlemen – Now is NOT the time when you can sit back and expect a few dozen volunteers or even a few hundred engaged activists to do all the work and assume that ‘someone else’ can stop the madness that has been going on in the Roundhouse and in the White House and in the halls of Congress. Now is NOT the time when you can pick your favorite candidate, send in a donation, vote, and expect that things will get better. Now is NOT the time when you simply forward emails to your friends and think you are doing enough.

THAT IS NOT ENOUGH!

Now IS the time when you – each and every one of you – need to get involved! You need to get involved in your precincts, talk with your friends and neighbors, volunteer to help a candidate, and as Jared suggested, volunteer to work at the polls during the upcoming elections.

THIS IS CRITICAL. THIS IS WAR. As Samuel Adams wrote – “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”

So I am asking you this - What are you willing to do to preserve freedom? What are you going to do to make sure that young people like Andrea, Brianne, and the millions of young people throughout this country can live their lives with the freedom and liberty that our Founding Fathers promised would be one of the cornerstones of the great country?

THIS IS NOT THE TIME when you can simply hope for the best. This is the time when you have to enter the fight! We’ve been fighting with kid gloves – using logic, common sense, trying to compromise, trusting in those we elected, we’ve been keeping our mouths shut while they are fighting with both barrels!

Well … NO MORE! I say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! What to you say?

I know I’ve quoted Jefferson before, but I have to read just one more. “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government. fears the people there is liberty.”

Do you want tyranny? Do you want liberty? Are you with me? Will you join the fight?

As I said before, THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING! We all need to stand up and say ENOUGH! ENOUGH! So I’m saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! What do you say? ENOUGH!

Don’t let this moment and this momentum go to waste. Join us today and help us bring sanity and common sense back to government.

Albuquerque Journal Op-Ed, Friday, April 9. 2010

ObamaCare Doesn't Tackle Out-of-Control Costs by Heather Wilson

In his opinion piece in the Albuquerque Journal last week Sen. Jeff Bingaman put the best face he could on the recently passed health care law while dismissing legitimate criticism as "misinformation."

To be sure, there are health care reforms that have broad support. Generous tax credits for people who are self-employed to reduce the number of uninsured and insurance market reforms that would prevent insurance companies from canceling policies when people get sick were supported by Democrats and Republicans.

But these provisions are not the core of the new health care law. As a whole, the new law takes the wrong approach to reform.

The biggest problem with health care that Americans want addressed is spiraling cost. Year after year of cost growth at two or three times the rate of inflation makes it difficult for any business to offer insurance. One of the biggest reasons take-home pay hasn't increased much over the past decade is that health care benefits are absorbing what would otherwise show up as pay raises.

The law passed does virtually nothing to address the escalating cost of health care. In fact, health insurance premiums will continue to rapidly increase under the new law, particularly for younger Americans. The law is based on an assumption that greater government control will put a brake on costs. But experience with both Medicaid and Medicare shows this just doesn't work.

Consumer-driven care and more choices can help control cost growth. The cost growth for medical procedures where the consumer makes a decision — like elective plastic surgery, dental care, chiropractic care, LASIC, hearing aids and eye glasses — are much closer to the regular rate of inflation.

Rather than structuring reform to use the power of individual informed consumers to help control cost growth, the health care bill relies on regulation of the insurance industry and statist solutions which have been and will likely continue to be ineffective.

The law raises taxes by $569 billion at a time when the economy is still struggling to produce jobs. A significant portion of these tax increases will fall on small business owners, where seven out of every 10 new jobs are created.

Companies have already started announcing how these changes are going to affect their ability to be profitable engines of economic growth. AT&T, Verizon, Honeywell, John Deere, Boeing and Caterpillar are the first wave of what will be a growing list of American firms that see profits eaten up by new taxes.

There will be taxes on people who choose not to buy health insurance, increases in Medicare payroll taxes, taxes on medical devices, and, for the first time, Medicare taxes on interest and dividends.

I'm always reluctant to rely on economists for their predictions, but a group of 130 of them sent a letter to President Obama before he signed the bill warning that these tax increases "are detrimental to job creation and economic growth."

In this case, I'm afraid they are probably right.

The law will reduce funding for a very popular Medicare program called Medicare Advantage. Forty percent of New Mexico seniors get their Medicare through Medicare Advantage programs offered by providers like Presbyterian and Lovelace. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates that one in five seniors will have to change their coverage because it will no longer be offered because of this change.

And there will be large reductions in payments to hospitals that may have a disproportionately severe impact on the rural hospitals in New Mexico.

Contrary to Senator Bingaman's claim, even with these tax increases and program cuts, this new entitlement will increase the debt and the deficit. Estimates vary on just how much we will have to borrow every year to support this new entitlement, but the idea that we can add over 17 million people to Medicaid without impacting the deficit is the kind of "misinformation" that Senator Bingaman should avoid.

The new health care law is a very expensive program that doesn't solve the problem of cost growth and gives government too big a role in the health care system. For the first time, the federal government will mandate that everyone have government-approved health insurance and be penalized if they do not.

It is the wrong approach to reform, and it will hurt New Mexicans more than it will help.

Santa Fe T.E.A. Party Mission Statement

MISSION STATEMENT

The MISSION of the Santa Fe TEA Party is to preserve the spirit of the Constitution and Bill of Rights as envisioned by our Founding Fathers by advocating for limited government, constrained government spending and taxation, advancing a free market economy and holding elected officials accountable for their decisions and demand that they be responsive to their constituents. We will encourage individual participation in the political process through education and activism.

OBJECTIVES

The OBJECTIVE of the Santa Fe TEA Party is to motivate and enable the citizens for informed participation in the political and electoral process at all levels of government.

CORE ISSUES

·Irresponsible spending and unsustainable deficits

·Prioritization of budget expenditures and budget cuts

·Ever-increasing taxation

·Expansion of government beyond its’ Constitutional authority

·Protection of individual’s Constitutional rights

·Free market solutions and expansion

·Accountability of elected officials

·Elimination of corruption, fraud and waste

GOALS

·To conduct public events to allow citizens to gather and speak out on our Core Issues

·Educate the public on our Core Issues

·Encourage individual conversations on our Core Issues between citizens and their elected officials and/or candidates

·Teach individuals how to become Citizen Lobbyists

·Make government officials at all levels more responsive and accountable to the citizens of the United States.

“When the government fears the people there is liberty.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny.”

Thomas Jefferson

The Santa Fe T.E.A. Party - The Facts by Sheryl Bohlander

This column appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican October, 2009.

Mark Twain once said, "If you don't read the newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read the newspapers you are misinformed." It seems that the skepticism of the media is not a new phenomenon. I appreciate The New Mexican for giving me this opportunity to share with its readers the true story behind the Santa Fe T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already!) Party — what it really is. We know that the first Tea Party was in Boston, but the current movement started in Chicago — not by Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Fox News. As with most movements, there is usually a growing concern among citizens, then something happens that acts as a catalyst for people to take action. Rick Santelli, a financial reporter for CNBC, yelled out "Washington, are you listening?" as he watched the stock market crash after the Obama administration passed the bailout of the housing market. He stated then and there that he was organizing the Chicago T.E.A. Party. The Santa Fe T.E.A. Party is part of this movement, but is a stand-alone group of local citizens who are committed to speaking out against wasteful governmental spending, unsustainable deficits, the encroachment of the government into the private sector, the lack of prioritizing of tax revenue and to encourage educated, informed discussions on the issues facing our city, county, state and country. The real story of the T.E.A. Party is not how it got started, but who we are and why we are speaking out. We are your friends and neighbors. We are Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and Native American. We are from all political parties. We are seniors who are concerned about the rising crime in Santa Fe and wonder why the local politicians have not prioritized the city budget to provide more police officers to keep us safe. We are business owners who have watched businesses in Santa Fe close their doors and worry that the growing impact of fees, regulations and taxes will force us to cut staff or close our doors as well. We are your doctors who understand the proposed health care reform will mean a decline in quality of care that we can give our patients. We are Baby Boomers who grew up with the belief that a good education, hard work and personal responsibility were the foundation upon which to build a career, a family and a community and that nothing was going to be handed to us ... we certainly knew that the government was not going to bail us out. We are parents of young children who see more of our tax dollars being spent on public education, but the schools continue to fail nearly half of our students. We are college students who want the American Dream and are willing to work hard for it, but we know that it is our generation and those who follow us who will be burdened with the debt that our government is imposing on us. We are the ones who know that you can't spend your way into prosperity and can't borrow your way out of debt. Sheryl Bohlander is the co-chair of the Santa Fe T.E.A. Party and a resident of Santa Fe.

TEA PARTY FAQ

WHAT IS THE SANTA FE TEA PARTY RALLY?

The Santa Fe Tea Party is a Rally where like-minded Americans will be gathering to show their support for a fiscally responsible government - at all levels of government, an end to irresponsible and wasteful government spending, an end to big government and the ever-increasing taxes, congressional “stimulus” packages and bailouts that will burden the American tax payer for generations to come. It is estimated that these will cost every man, woman and child in America over $42,000! How will we ever pay this debt? Now, the debate is over the government take-over of health care. When will it end?

IN WHAT WAY CAN I PARTICIPATE IN THE 9/12 TEA PARTY?

The most important thing you can do is to come to the rally and spread the word to your friends and family. The larger the rally, the more our elected officials will pay attention!

Email us to get a copy of our Santa Fe Tea Party flyer – pass them out, post them on bulletin boards, forward them via email. Help us get the word out! (Make sure you have permission to post the flyer on bulletin boards first.) (Email address: SantaFeVictory@live.com)

We will have a sign-making party – date and place to be announced. Even if you can’t attend the rally, you are welcomed to help make signs. We have suggestions for your signs – just email us and we will send you suggestions and guidelines.

Donations are very much appreciated! Cash donations will help us to pay for the rally – permits, signs, entertainment, etc. Donations of sign-making supplies will be helpful – poster boards, markers, etc. We need several tables and folding chairs for our petition signing. We could use clip boards for the petition signing. If you would like to buy some small US Flags that we can pass out, great.

Volunteers will be needed to help set up the event as well as take down and clean up after the event.

We are asking people to bring non-perishable food which will be donated to The Food Depot.

The event will be family-friendly.

WHAT OTHER EVENTS ARE PLANNED?

We hope that this is just the beginning of a new trend of taxpayers standing up and making their voice heard! The best way to keep informed of upcoming events is to make sure we have your contact information and/or monitor our blog at www.SantaFeTeaParty@blogspot.com.

HOW CAN I STAY INFORMED ON THESE IMPORTANT ISSUES?

We have an email campaign set up to provide Action Alerts which will let you know what issues are hot and need action – a call, fax, email or letter to elected officials. We do our best to monitor local, state and national issues. You will be given a summary of the issue, contact information – it is easy to stay involved and so rewarding to be making a difference!

Several of the individuals that helped organize this event are members of community groups that have regular meetings with various speakers and programs to keep you informed.

Friends of Capitalism

Center Right Coalition

Santa Fe Federated Republican Women

Club 54

Republican Party of Santa Fe County

More questions? Contact us at SantaFeVictory@live.com.