The American people spoke loud and clear on Election Day—the federal government has overreached. Tea Party candidates were successful in many House races, allowing the GOP to pick up more than 60 seats, while in the battle for the Senate, Tea Party candidates lost in Nevada, Colorado and Delaware, depriving the GOP of the 51 seats needed to take over the upper chamber.
The U.S. Senate race in Washington is still too close to call, and in Alaska it appears that write in candidate incumbent GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski will win another term at the expense of Tea Party endorsed GOP nominee Joe Miller.
In January, there will be a divided Congress. That should be enough to put the brakes on the growth of government spending, even though President Obama is dedicated to growing the federal government. However, will there be enough commitment by Tea Party congressmen to limited government in the new Congress to reduce federal spending substantially and thus put a dent in the projected $1 trillion plus deficit this year? As many as ten Democratic senators are up for reelection in 2012 whose states voted overwhelmingly Republican this year. Will they buck Obama and vote to extend the Bush tax cuts and reduce both entitlement and military spending? No part of the federal budget should be off limits to cutbacks.
We are in a fiscal emergency. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve just announced that I it will purchase at least $600 billion of Treasury debt. In other words, the FED will engage in a massive bout of legalized counterfeiting to bail out the federal government’s uncontrolled spending and “stimulate” the economy. The signs that price inflation is picking up is all around us, but the FED is ignoring all the evidence that deflation is not a ‘threat” to the economy.
On the international front, will the newly elected representatives and senators agitate for more war against Iran or any other nation? The recent foiled cargo plane bombings out of Yemen could become another pretext to send in the American military to fight in another unstable part of the world. We will have to wait as events unfold to see if the president will order the American military to take on another mission in the name of national security.
In the meantime, Tea Party winners should organize a summit on December 15—Bill of Rights Day–in Washington DC and ask Congressman Ron Paul, the godfather of the Tea Party movement, to lead a discussion of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. Judge Napolitano, author of several books on the U.S. Constitution, and other pro liberty, free market and noninterventionist proponents, should assist Congressman Paul.
C-SPAN, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Public Television stations around the nation should broadcast the summit, which would be the greatest “teach in” on the rights of the American people, the responsibilities of the federal government and the separation of powers.
The summit could begin with a brief history of the Bill of Rights, followed by a presentation of how the first ten amendments protect the people’s natural rights, and then a forum on the meaning of the Ninth and Tenth amendments.
After the above occurred, a discussion of Article I, Section 8, which outlines the responsibilities of the federal government, would explain how and why the federal government has exceeded its constitutional constraints. After this, a comprehensive explanation of the Federal Reserve would enlighten the newly elected members of Congress that the FED is the engine of inflation and causes the bubbles that eventually burst causing so much pain around the nation.
Lastly, the summit would conclude with a plan of action, outlining a period of transition to restore the principles of limited government over the next several years, including the phasing out of the notorious Ponzi schemes, Social Security and Medicare.
Tea Party members, as Senator DeMint of South Carolina wrote in the Wall Street Journal the other day, should forget about reelection. Now is the time to put principles before party and self. Now is the time to implement the liberty agenda.