by Dick Armey
If you plan to help us raise money online or raise money directly for your local group, the same rules and best practices apply. And utilizing online tools for fund-raising is one of the easiest, quickest ways to support your efforts. A group that does not take online donations is missing the boat and should immediately open up a PayPal account to start accepting funds.
We have a Web site and made an agreement with our web page designer and host to provide their services at no cost in exchange for our promotion of their companies. To date, their services are easily valued at over $5,000. We also have a similar agreement with a flag supplier, who donates a small portion of his sales to our organization. We do have a line of T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other assorted patriotic items that are available for purchase.
I have personally asked family, friends, and all in attendance at any of our events or speaking engagements to donate what they can. This has amounted to approximately $3,000. It is explained to them that we are willing and able to fight this fight, but it is the funding that enables us to do so. Some of our donations have come in denominations as small as $5 and some as much as a few hundred. We have even had a congressman make a donation to the cause. Most people cite the tight economy as their reason for not donating or for donating so little.
—GREG FETTIG, HOOSIER PATRIOTS
Acknowledgments
This book could not have been written without the hard work, perseverance, and patriotic spirit of untold thousands of citizens who make up the Tea Party movement. Each of them has contributed to the story line about this peaceful revolution against the political establishment that nourishes, and then profits from, big government. We would like to thank all of the local Tea Party leaders who took time to tell their stories to us and other members of the FreedomWorks staff. Thanks also go to the thousands of folks who responded to our “Why We Marched” e-mail request and submitted for us their personal stories and recollections just days after September 12, 2009. All of these accounts, collected, are the bits of decentralized knowledge that tell the real story about that historic day.
We would also like to thank the contributors of pictures, including Terry Kibbe, Michael Beck, and others, who provided photo documentation of the sheer size, wonderful diversity, and joy of the crowds who attended the Taxpayer March on Washington and other Tea Party events across the country.
Many thanks to William Morrow/HarperCollins: our editor, Peter Hubbard, and the entire team, including, Liate Stehlik, Lynn Grady, Dee Dee DeBartlo, Jean Marie Kelly, and Shawn Nicholls.
We also want to thank Jon Yarian and the Pinkston Group who guided our sometime hectic writing process, often working with us through the night to deliver the book on time.
Finally, we offer our appreciation and respect for all of our colleagues at FreedomWorks, who best reflect the values, commitment, ability, and old-fashioned work ethic that is the Tea Party ethos. This book could not have happened without the research and support of Max Pappas, Wayne Brough, Brendan Steinhauser, and Adam Brandon. Adam also served as the relentless agitator in chief for this project, and it would never have happened without his tireless—and hopelessly naive—advocacy for the book.
About the Authors
DICK ARMEY served in the House of representatives for eighteen years, becoming Majority Leader in 1994. That year he was the main author of the contract with America, which helped Republicans take control of the House for the first time in forty years. Today, he serves as chairman of FreedomWorks and leads the same political revolution at the grassroots level.
MATT KIBBE is president and CEO of FreedomWorks. Prior to joining FreedomWorks, he served as chief of staff and House Budget Committee associate for Rep. Dan Miller (R, FL). From 1990 to 1993 Kibbe was director of the Federal Budget Policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Prior to that, he served as senior economist for the Republican National Committee.
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Copyright
GIVE US LIBERTY. Copyright © 2010 by Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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1“I guess the rest is history”: This and all quotes from Mary Rakovich are from a personal interview with Adam Brandon, April 15, 2010.
2national debt stood at $5.6 trillion: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm.
3amount had nearly doubled to $10 trillion: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np.
4more than $18 trillion: “Budget of the U.S. Government Fiscal Year 2010,” May 2009, page 3.
560 percent of Gross Domestic Product: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_debt_chart.html.
6more than 100 percent by 2012: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10014/03-20-PresidentBudget.pdf.
7France’s 2010 debt-to-GDP ratio: http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2010/04/23/sovereign-debt-uk-vs-france.
8$1.9 trillion in 2009: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm.
9$2.1 trillion in revenue: “Budget of the U.S. Government Fiscal Year 2010,” May 2009.
10. . . driving ’54 Chevys: Squawk Box, February 19, 2009.
1“It was now evening, and I immediately dressed . . .”: James A. Hawkes, Retrospect of the Boston Tea-Party with a Memoir of George R. T. Hewes (New-York: S. S. Bliss, printer, 1834), 38.
2“The tea party concept has gained significant traction . . .”: Brian Stelter, “Reporter Says His Outburst Was Spontaneous,” New York Times, March 3, 2009.
3“There was no official count, but the crowd spilled . . .”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 26, 2009.
4Joseph Galloway threatened to derail momentum: Galloway’s speech can be found in the Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress), 44–48.
5“crowds around Carpenters’ Hall soon heard . . .”: A. J. Langguth, Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), 213.
6“He eats little . . .”: Ibid.
7“I shall have great advantage . . .”: Fawn Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (New York: Norton, 1998), 124.
9“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty . . .”: Lance Banning, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 1995).
10Winston Churchill would later say: Justin D. Lyons, “Winston Churchill’s Constitutionalism: A Critique of Socialism in America,” http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2009/05/Winston-Churchills-Constitutionalism-A-Critique-of-Socialism-in-America.
11“It does not require a majority to prevail . . .”: Greory Olinyk, Resonation: Enlightened Government for We the People (Garden City, N.Y.: Morgan James Publishing, 2006), 22.
1“The straw that broke the back . . .”: Personal interview with Adam Brandon, April 19, 2010.
26 percent to 1 percent: Federal Reserve, Federal Funds Effective Rate, “H.15, Selected Interest Rates,” available at https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H15/date.htm.
3“Too many dollars were churned out . . .”: Judy Shelton, “Loose Money and the Derivative Bubble,” for Wall Street Journal Symposium: Did the Fed Cause the Housing Bubble? March 27, 2009, 13 (available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123811225716453243.html).
4A respected classical liberal scholar: Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press 1912/1980) and Human Action (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949).
5“. . . such a boom is bound to collapse . . .”: Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1944), 251.
6banks “have tons of money left . . .”: Brian M. Carney, “The Credit Crisis Is Going to Get Worse,” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2008, A9.
7Indeed, a recent release by the U.S. Census Bureau: “Residential Vacancies and Ownership in the First Quarter 2010, U.S. Census Bureau, April 26, 2010, www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/hvs/qtr110/files/q110press.pdf.
8“. . . these government-sponsored enterprises have exposed taxpayers . . .”: Martin Reiser, “CSE Joins HOMEEC Coalition to Bring Needed Oversight to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” March 9, 2000. CSE (Citizens for a Sound Economy) was a predecessor organization of FreedomWorks.
9“. . . more people . . . exaggerate a threat . . .”: House Financial Services Committee, The Treasury Department’s Views on the Regulation of Government Sponsored Enterprises, Hearing Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, 108th Cong., 1st sess., September 10, 2003, 3.
10“Remember the S & L banking scandal . . .”: FreedomWorks, “Top Ten Welfare Queens, 2006,” August 8, 2006, available at http://www.freedomworks.org/publications/top-ten-welfare-queens-2006.
11“Corrections are not all bad”: John A. Allison to Congress, September 30, 2008, available at http://www.freedomworks.org/uploads/allison.pdf.
12“owes more to Benito Mussolini . . .”: Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr., “An Economy of Liars,” Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2010.
13“there are no atheists in foxholes . . .”: Quoted in Peter Baker “A Professor and a Banker Bury Old Dogma on Markets,” New York Times, September 21, 2008, A1.
14“abandoned free market principles . . .”: President George W. Bush, interview with CNN reporter Candy Crowley, December 16, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/16/bush.crowley.interview/index.html#cnnSTCVideo.
15“the Secretary is authorized to take such actions . . .”: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, Title I, Sec. 101 (c), http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1424.
16“. . . we must meet until this crisis is resolved”: Sen. John McCain, “America Faces an Historic Crisis,” Real Clear Politics, September 24, 2008, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/its_time_to_come_together_to_s.html.
17“Congress has given the Secretary far-reaching power . . .”: FreedomWorks Foundation, “Constitutional Infirmities of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA), Issue Analysis no. 124, January 13, 2009, http://www.freedomworks.org/files/policyanalysis.pdf.
18fathers of the separation of powers: See John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, edited by Peter Laslett (New York: New American Library, 1965), especially the Second Treatise, Sections 143, 144, 150, and 159. See also Charles Montesquieu, The Spirit of Laws (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
19“accumulation of all powers . . . in the same hands . . .”: James Madison, “The Particular Structure of the New Government and the Distribution of Power Among Its Different Parts,” The Federalist 47, January 30, 1788, available at http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa47.htm.
20Indeed, the TARP Congressional . . . been severely critical: Elizabeth Warren, “Accountability for the Troubled Asset Relief Program,” Congressional Oversight Panel, January 9, 2009, available at www.cop.senate.gov/reports/library/report-010909.cop.cfim.
21“While the purpose of [the TARP legislation] is to stabilize . . .”: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, “Statement on Stabilizing the Automotive Industry,” HP-1332, U.S. Department of the Treasury, December 19, 2008.
22“If we possess all the relevant information . . .”: F. A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” in Individualism and Economic Order (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 77.
23“The constitutional questionability of some provisions is worrying . . .”: Stuart Butler and Edwin Meese, III, “The Bailout Package: Vital and Acceptable,” The Heritage Foundation, September 29, 2008.
24“. . . inaction is not a good option”: https://www.afpmo.org/index.php?id=6475.
25“grassroots reaction is visceral . . .”: Lisa Lerer, “Bailout Critics Say They’re Losing,” Politico.com, September 24, 2008, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13809.html.
26“economic freedom means the freedom to succeed . . .”: Terence P. Jeffrey, “Pence Calls on Conservatives to Oppose Bailout That ‘Nationalizes’ Bad Mortgages,” CNSNews.com, September 28, 2008, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/36463.
27“lawmakers say they have received hundreds of calls . . .”: Sarah Lueck and Michael Phillips, “Lawmakers Weigh Political Risks of Stance on Bailout Plan.” Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2008, A6.
28“As a public choice professor, I used to begin class each semester . . .”: Dick Armey, “My Vote: NO,” National Review Online, September 29, 2008, available at http://article.nationalreview.com/372981/my-vote-no/dick-armey.
29“If ye love wealth better than liberty . . .”: Samuel Adams, speech, August 1, 1776.
30“Americans’ anger is in full bloom . . .”: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Constituents Make Their Bailout Views Known,” New York Times, September 25, 2008, A27.
31“Exempts from the excise tax . . .”: Lawrence H. White, “The Financial Bailouts: ‘See the Needle and the Damage Done,’ ” The Freeman 59, no. 2, March 2009, http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-financial-bailouts-%E2%80%9Csee-the-needle-and-the-damage-done%E2%80%9D/#.
1The Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter noted: Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1942).
2the “seen and the unseen”: Frédéric Bastiat, “That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen,” in The Bastiat Collection, 2 vols. (Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007), 2:1–48.
3“. . . What are their names?”: Personal recollection of Dick Armey and Phil Gramm, confirmed with Gramm.
42009 budget deficit was 10 percent of GDP: Jackie Calmes, “$1.4 Trillion Deficit Complicates Stimulus Plans,” New York Times, October 17, 2009, A1.
5interest on the debt alone: Jeanne Sahadi, “$4.8 trillion: Interest on U.S. Debt,” CNN Money.com, December 20, 2009, http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/19/news/economy/debt_interest/index.htm?cnn=yes.
6He replied “a republic if you can hold it”: Notes of Dr. James McHenry, American Historical Review 11 (1906), 618.
1“As veteran Russia reporters . . .”: Mark Ames and Yasha Levine, “Backstabber: Is Rick Santelli High On Koch?” in Megan McArdle, “Playboy Dips
a Toe into Investigative Journalism,” http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/03/playboy-dips-a-toe-into-investigative-journalism/4770/.
2FreedomWorks as the “Armey of Darkness”: Paul Krugman, “Armey of Darkness,” New York Times, April 11, 2009, http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/armey-of-darkness.