Houston Area Liberty Campaign

April 30,2010 – Houston
The Houston Tea Party Society hosted an event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to allow candidates for the 2010 Congressional Races in the Houston and Southeast Texas to participate and sign the Contract From America.    The event was open to all congressional Candidates in the South East Texas area including incumbents and challengers.

The Contract from America is self described as a grassroots-generated, crowd-sourced, bottom-up call for real economic conservative and good governance reform in Congress.   The initative was developed within the decentralized tea party and 912 movements. Ryan Hecker, a Houston Tea Party Society activist, developed the concept of creating a grassroots-generated call for reform prior to the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Party rallies.

John Culberson (R ) of Texas District 7 was the only incumbent present for the signing.    The candidates in attendance included Libertarians Bruce West of the 8^th district, David Smith of the 2^nd District and Steve Susman of the 22^nd District.   Republican signers for the contract were John Faulk – District 18.

Congressional candidate David Smith, CD 2-TX

John Culberson was the first to sign the contract.   Before signing the contract, he took exception to the 9^th item which was to reduce pork.   The contract states that congress will not pass any earmarks until the budget is balanced and only then with a 2/3 majority vote.    Culberson declined to include that item and used a “Line item veto” with that rule.

All other candidates signed the contract without any exceptions or exemptions.   David Smith who is opposing Ted Poe of the 2^ndCongressional District, used his time to mention “Fiscal Responsibility is vital to our economy and our government.”   He also noted that he had been busy campaigning in a non-stop door to door campaign.

When Bruce West, the Libertarian challenger to Kevin Brady of the 8^th district,  signed the contract he stated “I am not sure why anybody would have a problem with eliminating pork and the moratorium on earmarks.   We have seen other candidates who have gone to Washington with a campaign promise of not adding any earmarks and they were successful in keeping that promise.”   Bruce also said “while this Contract FROM America is a great start and reflects the general overall feelings of America, I must add my own addendum with items that are vitally important to my district.”   The addendum that Bruce added to the contract included Term Limits, Border Control before Immigration Control, Line Item Vetos among other items.

Congressional candidate Bruce West, CD 8-TX

Steve Susman, the Libertarian candidate opposing Pete Olson, said “I am going to Washington to support small business.   I own my own business and I know the troubles that other small business owners are suffering from.   I know we need a government to get off our backs and let us do business.   In addition to the 10 items in the contract, I want to add the items that Bruce West has added also.   My district is still recovering from Hurricane Ike and the addendum will address that issues that we have trying to get flood insurance and compensation from FEMA.”

John Faulk (R ) who is running against Shelia Jackson Lee asked for support.   He mentioned the voter fraud and deception that runs rampant in his district.   He requested others to support him by volunteering to be alternate election judges during the election.

The Actual Contract text is seen below or on the website http://www.thecontract.org.  (The numbers in parentheses represent the percentage of online voters who supported that particular initiative.

We, the undersigned, call upon those seeking to represent us in public office to sign the Contract from America and by doing so commit to support each of its agenda items, work to bring each agenda item to a vote during the first year, and pledge to advocate on behalf of individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.

Individual Liberty

Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression and free from excessive control over our economic choices.

Limited Government

The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our country’s sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression, and poverty increases.

Economic Freedom

The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.

1. Protect the Constitution

Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does. (82.03%)

2. Reject Cap & Trade

Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures. (72.20%)

3. Demand a Balanced Budget

Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike. (69.69%)

4. Enact Fundamental Tax Reform

Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words—the length of the original Constitution. (64.90%)

5. Restore Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in Washington

Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning. (63.37%)

6. End Runaway Government Spending

Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth. (56.57%)

7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care

Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries. (56.39%)

8. Pass an ‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy

Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition and jobs. (55.51%)

9. Stop the Pork

Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark. (55.47%)

10. Stop the Tax Hikes

Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011. (53.38%)

Addendum added by Bruce West, Steve Susman and David Smith. Addendum to Contract From America:

We the undersigned agree with all points in the Contract From America.   While we believe the Contract is a good overall policy and is applicable nationwide, we feel there are issues that most affect those of us in Southeast Texas.    As a further commitment to the Contract From America, we submit the below items as an addendum to this contract.   These items are based on issues found while conducting polls and surveys in the Southeastern Congressional districts of Texas.

In addition to the standard Contract From America, we further commit to the following items.

1.        Border control is essential for the control of illegal immigration.  Based on current situations, we cannot allow this issue to wait until it is politically advantageous for our leaders to resolve.   Although we support immigration for those coming to our country legally, we must limit those coming in the back door.    The border must be controlled by any means possible prior to any discussion on immigration improvements or amnesty.

2.       Open and transparency in congressional representation.   Congressional Representatives represent the people of the district, not lobbyist or special interest.   Our Congressional Website will be designed to allow constituents to read legislation, comment and vote on legislation.   This website will also allow us to explain bills, discuss the issues and explain why and who is supporting the legislation.

3.       Federal Reserve Bank must be open and transparent.   We support legislation to ensure an open and transparent Federal Reserve Bank by requiring an open and public audit of all activities conducted by this bank.

4.       Term Limits.   Term limits are not a reflection on the current representative.   A congressional or senatorial representative has a tendency to lose touch with his constituency after serving in Washington for an extended period of time.   By beginning the process of a constitutional amendment to limit the representation of all of our elected representatives, we limit the loss of touch and prevent an excessive influence by those living outside our district.   We recommend a term limit of 10 years (5 terms) for congressional representatives and 12 years (2 terms) for Senators.   These term limits apply for consecutive terms only.   A congressional representative my run for the position after sitting out for a minimum of 2 terms.   A senator may run again after sitting out for one term.

5.       Line Item Veto.   Congressional and Senatorial Representatives should be able to vote on bills based on line items.   If a portion of a bill is not acceptable, it should be rejected by Congress, Senate or President.

6.       Birthright Status.   We will work to pass legislation that defines the birthright of citizens.   If a person is born to two non-citizens, that child is not automatically entitled to be a U.S. Citizen.   The mother of the child must be a U.S. Citizen or married to a U.S. Citizen prior to automatic citizenship.

7.       Corporate bailouts and corporate welfare must be ended.   The American Government is not in the business of picking winners and losers.   The practice of choosing who wins or loses must be eliminated.   All government subsidies must be reviewed for termination of those programs.

8.       Hurricane Resolution.   It has been almost 2 years since Hurricane Ike has ransacked our districts.   Citizens in our district have been trying to navigate the FEMA and Mortgage companies policies during this time to no avail.   A full investigation into FEMA and the Mortgage company practices and actions must be investigated and issues resolved.   Hurricane Ike disbursements were not distributed correctly and must be addressed.    National Flood Insurance Plan was not renewed by Congress and many citizens are now left vulnerable to the next disaster.   We will investigate and issue legislation to resolve these issues so Texans can move on with their lives.

9.       The Patriot Act is a fundamentally flawed bill that allows our government to bypass due processes and Constitutional rights to achieve illegal “intelligence” gathering.  This bill is unconstitutional and the elements which are unconstitutional must be removed.

10.   Freedoms.   Continuously, our leaders have eroded away our constitutional freedoms.   We support all freedoms and Liberties that our founding fathers, parents, grandfathers and/or relatives have fought and died to defend. We will defend all constitutional freedom and liberty at every opportunity.   We will not vote on unconstitutional bills and we will not forget that America is a Republic designed to protect the rights and liberties of all.   We will not allow any restrictions on our rights to practice religion, gather peacefully or own weapons.   We will fight every attempt the sacrifice the smallest of our country’s sovereignty to any other government or body including the United Nations or any other nation or body of government.