8.2.11 -- From Texas State Senator Dan Patrick

“A Letter to the Tea Party: Do Not Give Up the Fight. You are right and not alone.”

In the wake of the national debate on the debt ceiling, I’m sending this note out to all of my friends in the Tea Party movement to encourage everyone to not give up the fight in demanding fiscal responsibility at all levels of government.

As a Texas state senator who received an A+ rating, by Michael Quinn Sullivan’s Empower Texas, for my consistent conservative voting on fiscal matters, I was greatly disappointed in the bill that passed the House and Senate and was signed by the President. I applaud the courageous 66 Republicans and Senators who voted no on the bill, a bill that does nothing to seriously cut spending, address the 14 trillion debt, or address our entitlement programs that cannot be sustained as currently structured.

I know that tough votes are not easy make. This past session I was the only Republican on Finance who voted no on the budget in committee. I believed we should not spend funds from the Rainy Day Fund for our next budget. (We are going to have a budget gap again and needed to key every dollar we could. We may need all of it just for Medicare if some of the legislation we passed to find sayings doesn’t work as hoped. ) With the help of several other Republicans in the Senate, not on Finance, who shared my view, we blocked the finance bill passed out of committee from coming to the floor until those funds were removed from the 2012-13 budget. Sadly we do not have enough Republicans in Congress or the U.S Senate who are willing to make tough votes.

I watch the national media, including so-called conservatives, criticize and blame the Tea Party movement for the debt ceiling crisis. Let’s be clear, we have a debt crisis because spending in Washington, by both parties, has been out of control for decades, not because of the Tea Party.

Ben Stein said on CNN that the Tea Party has to come to the reality that we cannot reduce spending overnight. I find it interesting that Obama can bankrupt our nation in 3 years, but we cannot expect to reduce spending over the same period of time. Why is it that reducing spending by trillions over a short period of time is a radical idea, but spending trillions over the same period of time is not

Even the New York Times got it right this time in their analysis of the bill. They stated the bill only cuts spending by .05%. That is nothing, just a rounding error in the budget. Most of the cuts don’t occur until later years, some as late as 2017. And most alarmingly nearly half the cuts come out of our military.

I’m tired of the same Democrats and Republicans, who because of their actions over the past, and who put us in this position, telling us we in the Tea Party movement are the problem. They are the problem.

The Democrats, including V.P. Biden, are reported to have called the Tea Party “terrorists” in their behind closed door caucus meetings. The reason there is an all out attack on the Tea Party movement is because we are right and the establishment knows it. The establishment, of both parties, doesn’t want to end the out of control spending that has occurred for decades in Washington. They don’t want change.

We who believe that spending must be cut significantly now, entitlement programs must be addressed, and that we must have a balanced budget amendment are right in our thinking. Could there have been a good compromise bill? Yes. But this was not it. There is a difference between compromise and capitulation. My message to you is don’t be discouraged. Do not grow weary. Do not give up the fight. The future of your job, your business, your family, and your financial security, is at stake. The future of this country and with it the future of the world is on the line.

I’m not discouraged. The debt ceiling debate has given us clarity. There are two paths ahead. One path is the continuation of the same Washington policies that have placed our nation on the edge of collapse by spending, borrowing, and misleading and scaring the public when anyone dares to change that policy.

The other path is one that says we must live within our means, reduce spending, get government out of the way of business, repeal Obama care, prioritize spending to take care of those truly in need in our nation, and pass a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution. It is clear the latter path is the correct one and that must prevail. The former path will lead us to ruin. The latter to prosperity for those willing to get an education and willing to work.

If it were not for the Tea Party we would not even be having this debate. Make no mistake we who believe in the latter path are right. Sometimes it can be lonely standing up for what you believe and know is right. Know this, you are not alone. I stand with you. Millions stand with you.


Dan Patrick.
Texas Senate District 7

http://www.patrick.senate.state.tx.us/#

Dan is District 7 and we are in District 11, but you have to watch 'em all.  ~Faye