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At the origin of America, our Founding Fathers built this country on 28 powerful principles. These principles were culled from all over the world and from centuries of great thinkers. The original 28 principles are in print in The Five Thousand Year Leap. These principles have been distilled down to the 9 basic principles.
The formation of Constitutional TEA Party is based on these principles. The TEA parties held from coast-to-coast are based on these principles of our Founding Fathers.
So, how do we show America what’s really behind the curtain? Read The 9 Principles. If you believe in at least seven of them, then we have something in common. Join with us at Constitutional TEA Party to spread these principles, one person at a time.
1. America Is Good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
God “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”
from George Washington’s first Inaugural address.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
Honesty“I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
George Washington
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
Marriage/Family “It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is known. By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family.”
Thomas Jefferson
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
Justice “I deem one of the essential principles of our government… equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.”
Thomas Jefferson
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness “Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.”
Thomas Jefferson
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Charity “It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer.”
George Washington
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
On your right to disagree “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly without thinking.”
George Washington
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
Who works for whom? “I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation as the source of all authority in that nation.”
Thomas Jefferson
* Reverence
* Hope
* Thrift
* Humility
* Charity
* Sincerity
* Moderation
* Hard Work
* Courage
* Personal Responsibility
* Gratitude
Reid’s Health Overhaul Bill Likely to Split Senate Democrats
(Bloomberg Press By Kristin Jensen and Laura Litvan
Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil legislation to overhaul the U.S. health-care system as early as this week. The floor debate that follows is likely to divide his Democratic Party.
Reid wants to include a government-run insurance program that would let states opt out, which may cost him Senate votes. His version probably won’t require employers to cover workers and will be funded through a tax on high-end insurance plans, which would put him at odds with House Democrats.
Reid needs 60 votes to pass the legislation, and he risks losing Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who caucuses with the Democrats and opposes the government insurance plan. He also hasn’t won over the two Republicans most likely to back the bill, Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
“He’s going to have to walk a tightrope in order to end up with a package that can get him 60 votes,” said former Senator John Breaux, a Democrat who now heads a lobbying firm that represents the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry’s Washington trade group.
The legislation, President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority, is intended to cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans while curbing medical costs. Lawmakers’ proposals for purchasing exchanges, subsidies and a requirement that all Americans have coverage would cost more than $800 billion over 10 years and mark the biggest changes to U.S. health care in more than four decades.
House Passage
While the House passed its version on a 220-215 vote on Nov. 7, Reid has delayed unveiling his legislation while waiting for Congressional Budget Office cost estimates on various proposals drawn up by the Senate health and finance committees.
“Once we hear from CBO, we will take the legislation to the caucus and hope to start floor debate as soon as possible,” said Jim Manley, Reid’s spokesman.
The Senate health panel embraced the government insurance plan, or public option, to compete with private insurers such as Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Inc. The finance committee rejected the idea, with three Democrats voting against it, Senators Max Baucus of Montana, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
Other Senate Democrats, including Nebraska’s Ben Nelson and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, have also been critical of the public option. And Snowe and Collins say they won’t support it either.
Changes Likely
“Reid’s bill is likely to be weakened, especially in the public option,” said John Fortier, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “How you finance it, the public option, all these things are deals to be made.”
Reid first must corral 60 votes to start debate. Later, he might do a test vote on the proposal with a public option before accepting Snowe’s plan to create a government program only if premiums aren’t affordable enough, Breaux said.
“Harry can change it and go back to maybe a trigger mechanism and see if that picks up other Democrats and possibly picks up Olympia Snowe,” Breaux said.
There are other questions. Democrats are fighting over restrictions that might be included in the bill to ensure that no federal money goes to fund abortions; some argue the House provision on the issue will end up curbing abortion rights.
If Reid loses even one Democrat, he must make it up with Republican support, an effort that’s proving difficult.
Collins’s List
Collins last week outlined a list of concerns about the Senate Finance Committee’s measure and the ideas Reid is considering. Among other things, she said, affordability of care will be hampered by new taxes and industry fees under discussion, and she sees nothing so far that gives her confidence that health-care costs will decline as intended.
“To me, we should go rewrite the whole bill,” Collins told reporters on Nov. 9.
Senate leaders are considering whether to change fees on drugmakers, medical device makers and insurers passed by the finance panel. And they’re trying to mollify Democrats who want to scale back a tax on insurers for so-called Cadillac insurance plans because they say it would hurt middle-class workers.
Reid may instead opt to raise the rate of the payroll tax used to fund Medicare, the government-run health program for the elderly, or add a new Medicare tax on capital gains, both only for wealthy Americans.
No Employer Mandate
The Nevada Democrat is likely to drop plans for a mandate that all employers offer insurance to workers or pay a penalty, a person familiar with the negotiations said late last month. Instead, companies with 50 or more workers would be subject to penalties if they don’t provide coverage and have workers who get taxpayer-funded subsidies to buy policies.
Reid is pushing to meet Obama’s goal of getting legislation finished this year and last week brought in former President Bill Clinton to encourage fellow Democrats to act. After a measure passes the Senate, it would have to be combined with the House version in negotiations before a new round of votes.
If Reid succeeds, he will have navigated “through some very treacherous seas,” Breaux said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net; Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net