Summer Time - but living ain't easy

I woke up today thinking about the Tea Party, realizing how we've grown in numbers in less than thirty six months. Realizing the impact we have had already…Realizing the numbers in the polls that are showing the growing number of people who say they have the same conservative ideas and beliefs that we hold. As I try to separate the wheat from the chafe in this political debacle I am truly amazed at what such a small percentage of voters can accomplish once the notion of 'responsibility of the governed' take roots. The Tea Party is not the 'grass root movements' of yesteryear… Most of these yesteryear movements have come into being around certain limited issues and have gone as the problem went away.

The Tea Party is a much older idea and a deeply intrinsic belief, a belief written in a old document that is very much alive in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Our form of government was created by and for the people. It is their government and its sole purpose is to serve the people. The elected employees who serve in their government serve at the will of the people.

We can point to this law or that law, this tax or that tax, but they are simply examples of the current elected employees loosing sight of who they are, who they work for, and not serving the will of the people. These employees are there because we put them there. The Tea Party has accepted that many, if not most, of these elected employees have little or no interest in serving the people. We have begun replacing them with others, others who understand the role of government and the part it is to play in our life. This replacing process is the primary mission of the Tea Party at the State and Federal levels at this point in time.

You know how sometimes things, stories, or memories just pop up in your mind. This morning what just 'popped up' in my mind was the story of the dad finding his ten year old son in the barn shoveling in the horse manure pile. He watched for awhile and finally asked his son what he was doing. The son replied that with such a big pile of horse manure there must be a pony in here somewhere.

This little boy's hope and desire for a pony reminded me of the Tea Party members with their shovels….

For the last few weeks, we have been including articles, letters, and other news from writers outside the Tea Party circles as well as from different parts of the country. Last one was Star Parker's article..(Lots of good feed back on it.) Today the letter is from a home grown Mississippian written to our current Senators. Ms. Yvonne Vance is a retired president of a bank in Water Valley, Mississippi…A lady bank President in Mississippi? This may not be a such a new idea now but back when she became a bank president it was rare and almost nonexistent. She is well known and respected in Mississippi's banking circles which are still mostly made up with men in the positions of presidents.

I'll make no other comments because I feel her letter speaks for itself.

Senator Cochran
Senator Wicker

Yvonne Vance
Water valley, MS 38965-2809

Dear Senator Cochran and Senator Wicker,

Please do everything in your power to bring the Cut, Cap and Balance plan back to the table to be voted on.

We "plain old citizens" are tired of the bureaucrats in Washington spending like there is no tomorrow. All the Trust funds for social
Security have been pilloried and spent and more than that too. I understand those funds are not even counted in the public debt-not even a
treasury bond or bill to show for the funds. You may think that the debt limit is the only thing that affects our credit rating. As a former bank President and lender, let me tell you that is only one part of it and it is a result of the most flagrant spending sprees in the history of mankind. As a
banker, knowing what I do about the wild spending habits (you may say, oh, these are things we needed) I certainly could not justify continuous lending, based on history alone if I were a rater of debt.

It is clear that those with some financial planning sense and some accounting expertise and the old fashioned guts to do the right thing and
the sensible thing need to stand up and be counted and stick with their guns.

President Obama stated this afternoon in his speech that he would take charge and provide the increase in the debt limit until 2015 which is 3 years past the 2012 elections. Are you all going to allow that to happen? I did not think HE alone had that authority, but are you all going to allow him to do that? He has by passed the congress on so many things it is pitiful and no one has done anything about it. What is the problem?

Do we the people count? It is us, our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren that will pay for this boondoggle. Do we deserve what has happened to us, much less too the young ones and even to those who have not even been born?

I do not mind giving to my country. I am 73 years old and have worked all my life and have paid in a great deal of taxes during the 50 plus years that I worked and an stilling paying a lot of taxes. I would not mind paying and of them if I had the comfort that the money being spent wisely and within a reasonable budget. I have to balance my budget and I cannot spend more than I make or can reasonably repay over a reasonable period of time.

It is very clear that the same reasonable restraint that I as a citizen have to lice with does not apply to the federal government. I know what it is like to not be able to make ends meet during our early farming years but I knew that we had to take care of the problem ourselves so what did we do? We went out and got another job to bring in more money. I never asked for welfare even though I had small children but I knew of many who quit jobs in order to 'draw' when the great society welfare programs began. These people cheated themselves out of the opportunity to work and to improve themselves and make more money (or the federal government cheated them. However you want to look at it.) I had one young woman tell me in my banking career that her mother told her at age 13 to have three babies so she could 'draw'. She said that was not enough to live on and she wanted to give them more so she went to work as a certified nursing assistant. I encouraged her to work to become an LPN(Since she liked her work.) Then to work towards being a registered nurse.

I know thee are those of us who do need help but I can assure you there is tremendous abuse in the program. Plus the breakdown of the families can be greatly attributable to the welfare program. If you do not believe it look at the rules of application for the funds. It directly benefits those females who have children without a father to support them. This is not the only abuse in government spending but is one of the worse.

Please stand up for straightening out the mess that has been made and take the right steps to start the process. If you do not it will be too late because this country will be just like a person or company that does not spend wisely. It will fail. Is that what we want?

Sincerely,
Yvonne Vance
7/21/11

This is straight forward straight talk…. Neither Senator can confuse or confound what she is saying. If we search our experiences with either of these Senators along with our hearts and minds what do we believe they will do after reading her plea? How many similar letter do you imagine these two men have gotten from people who voted for them?

Our two Senators hold "Top of the Pork Barrel " award. This pork barreling award has to do with 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' way of political life. More bluntly put, peddling their votes in order to get special projects done in Mississippi for special interest groups. Pork barreling is not a bad thing in and by itself but if it becomes the cornerstone of a senator's governing/voting position then it become destructive. Senators are part of the governing body for the nation and not just their local states. A senator has to do a lot of 'trading' to work his way to the top of the pork barreling heap, which our two Senators have done in spades.

Here is a deal I think we should offer with each of them. IF they will start listening to us, accept the fact they work for us, work and vote in ways that meets the needs, wishes and desires of the people of this state we will let them keep their job. If they don't want to do this deal, which is what they agreed to when we gave them their jobs years ago, we'll just replace them. How does this strike everyone? Will an idea like this work? No….it won't work…It should work... It should be that simple…But voters have been trained so long in this two party political system that our freedom of choice has been lost. The political parties decide who will run, they fund candidates of their choice, they use their organization to assure the turn out of voters for those chosen candidates. This is the foundation of the good-old-boy-system…. So what's new? This is what pork-barreling buys the sitting congressional leaders This is non - news….The shear amount of pork these two men deliver to Mississippi should continue to get them elected till the cows come home. I say should but should it?

Third party candidates never win. However, they do end up dividing the vote. Bill Clinton becoming President is just such an example. So for us to have a voice we need to be in the selection process of candidates. We must get a much higher number of Tea members participating in the Republican Party in this state. This will be difficult because it seems, at least on the surface, the Republican Party in Mississippi is as worried about Tea Party power as the Democratic party worries about us (I could be wrong.)

Move The House/MS Tea Party along with others have vetted candidates and I met four of them In Tupelo last week at a Move The House meeting.
All of them need our support, votes where we can, and always new candidates need money. Running a campaign takes lots of time and lots of money. Move The House on the MS Tea Party web site is the best place to send you check. Check their web site.

A personal note: In a nut shell as I look at these folks running for office of President and setting aside the issue of whether or not they can beat Obama in the election I don't see any leadership qualities. We are in a mess in this country that has evolved over decades. We have government polices and programs in place that generations have now grown up with. Our next president will need to have the hearts, minds, and trust of the people to make the changes that will lead us back to a government of, for, and by the people. That is heavy lifting...None of the current candidates have engendered that level of trust in me.

I happened across the video below and was struck with the incredible difference between what this man (Marco Rubio) is saying and what our current candidates are saying. A number of years ago I saw him deliver a similar speech when he was in the Florida House of Representatives. The Oxford Tea Party supported him in his campaign to become senator from Florida. Also, as long as our Tea Party is active we will look for and overtly support men and women like him. Move the House has begun to do the same with candidates in Mississippi. The Tea Party does not need to hide our support of candidates that have joined us in our mission.

I voted for President Regan for every elected office he aspired to. He may or may not go down in history as one of the great Presidents and regardless of what historians may say I trusted him from start to finish, campaign to campaign and I see in Rubio that same trustworthiness. Rubio is too young and unknown, I think, to run for the office of President at this time. So it is not my purpose to push that as an idea.. I am concerned about our current slate of presidential candidates. ( I may simply be off in left field.) Please watch the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BypW8Ev3lM&feature=youtu.be

Thirteen months from now Obama will become a two term President or not. IF not it will be because we made it so.

Ron
 
docnick37@gmail.com
 
http://theoxfordteaparty.blogspot.com/