Tea Party Speech by Marjorie Holsten
From the Inbox, Marjorie Holsten writes in with her speech form the Tea Party speech last week. There was no video of it as she was up late in the day, but here is the text.
Greetings my fellow Tea Party Patriots. It is a privilege to speak to you tonight.
One year ago, many thousands of Patriots all across America gathered to protest how government, originally designed to protect our freedoms, has been perverted to an instrument of tyranny. One year ago, We the People protested that our leaders took billions upon billions of tax dollars and squandered them.
Today, the problem is worse. One quarter of our entire U.S. national debt was accumulated last year. Our national debt today is a mind-boggling 13 trillion dollars, and is growing by more than four billion dollars a day.
Today we are protesting the way our government is using its power to tax as a means of changing America – a tool of social engineering. We are having a Tea Party because we have been Taxed Enough Already.
Currently, almost half of the households in America pay NO federal income tax. Many of these people actually get money from the government in the form of a tax credit. Despite the name, this is welfare. To give money to one person, the government first must take it from someone else – namely, the other half of our population. There are two names for the process of taking money and property from one person and giving it to another: The first name is stealing. The second name is Wealth Redistribution, which is a major tenet of both Socialism and Marxism. According to the Heritage Foundation, the top 1% of taxpayers paid 40% of all federal income tax in 2007, and that percentage is expected to rise. Candidate Obama promised Joe the Plumber that he would redistribute wealth, and he has kept that promise.
Joe Biden said it was Patriotic to pay taxes, but there are many members of the Obama administration who have cheated on their taxes, including Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner. This is hypocrisy at its worst. This is also a recipe for disaster. When everyone gets into the cart, there will be no one left to pull the cart.
Less than a month ago, Obamacare was signed into law. Provisions of this so-called health care bill will be enforced by the IRS. Obamacare calls for hiring an additional 16,500 IRS agents. IRS agents have nothing to do with health care, and everything to do with control.
Government control is further evident by the IRS’s recent purchase of sixty high-powered shotguns. Guns are used to intimidate and kill. Thomas Jefferson said, “When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
My friends, arming the IRS is a leap into tyranny. The IRS should NOT have guns. The people should. The 2nd Amendment states that the right of the people to bear arms SHALL NOT be infringed.
Senate Bill 2099 was proposed last year. It requires people to list on their tax forms all guns they own, and pay a tax of $50.00 per gun. We the People strongly objected when this unconstitutional bill was proposed, and for now, it has not progressed to become law.
Last fall, Cap & Trade (Tax), passed the House. This bill imposes huge taxes on the use of energy. Fortunately, this bill also has not yet become law. Despite it not being law, the Environmental Protection Agency has declared itself to be to be regulator of carbon dioxide emissions, and plans to penalize those who do not comply with its regulations. A penalty is in essence a tax.
Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution provides that all legislative powers shall be vested in Congress. The EPA’s actions are unconstitutional because the EPA has no authority to make laws, and no authority to tax. Yet they plan to tax the very air we breathe.
When the framers wrote the Constitution, they created a Constitutional Republic with three co-equal branches of government and a series of checks and balances to make sure that no single branch of government became too strong. Soon after the Constitution was ratified, the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution were also ratified. These are collectively known as the Bills of Rights, and limit actions government can take against the people.
The framers intended the Constitution to protect our liberties, and not to be perverted to an instrument of tyranny. This intention is clear from the document itself. One of the five stated purposes in the Preamble is securing the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Liberty cannot coexist with tyranny.
Our forefathers intended the power of taxation to be very limited.
Article One Section 8 of the Constitution contains a list of 18 specific duties, or powers, of congress. The first of these enumerated powers is “the power to lay and collect taxes… to pay debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.
In the 1936 case of United States vs. Butler (297 U.S. 1), Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s activist Supreme Court declared “the power of Congress to authorize expenditure of public monies for public purposes is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found in the Constitution.” Let me rephrase – they said the power to tax was unlimited.
This ruling is wrong for many reasons, two of which are obvious. First, the language in the General Welfare clause of the Constitution is identical to the language used in the Articles of Confederation, which had no taxing authority whatsoever. Second, there are seventeen additional powers following the General Welfare clause. There would be no point in the enumeration of powers if the General Welfare clause was to be all-encompassing.
At the Virginia Convention on the Ratification of the Constitution, George Nicholas said “An enlightened people will never suffer what was established for their security to be perverted to an act of tyranny.”
Over the years, too many people have not been “enlightened,” and have allowed their freedoms to be taken away by government, in exchange for promises of security. Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
My friends, we are facing a time of unprecedented challenges to our economy, our Constitutional Republic, and the very existence of our great nation. We must unite to take our country back.
This is an election year, and we have the right to vote in November. I challenge every one of you to get involved in the process. Find out who is running for office, at the federal, state, and local levels. Talk with candidates, and find out if they want to grow government or bring us back in line with the intent of the framers of our Constitution. Support candidates who support limited government and lower taxation. If no one is running, you need to step up to the plate.
I’d like to paraphrase a verse from the book of Esther. Every one of you is here today for “Such a Time as this.” God Bless America, and may God bless each one of you