Where do they stand on climate change and the environment?
I found this on Wiki. At the same time, it's my impression that there's nothing yet from the Tea Party that might be called a party platform, i.e. nothing agreed upon in an official way.
Still this is rather interesting and provides some indication of what they are loosely organized around.
Tea Party agenda "Contract from America"
The Contract from America was the idea of Houston-based lawyer, Ryan Hecker. Hecker stated that he developed the concept of creating a grassroots call for reform prior to the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Party rallies. To get his idea off the ground, he launched a website, "ContractFromAmerica.com," which encouraged people to offer possible planks for the contract.
A Tea Party protest in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 15, 2009.Hecker told The New York Times, "Hundreds of thousands of people voted for their favorite principles online to create the Contract as an open-sourced platform for the Tea Party movement. The agenda had the imprint of everyday citizens every step of the way (in the online voting process.)" Based on the Contract with America authored by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, Hecker said the Republicans’ 1994 Contract with America represented the nation’s last intellectual economic conservative movement, but the new list, he said, was “created from the bottom up. It was not crafted in Washington with the help of pollsters." [60]
From the original 1,000 ideas which were submitted, Hecker reduced it to about 50 based on popularity. He then narrowed that list down to 10 items with the help of former House Republican Leader Dick Armey, whose conservative group, FreedomWorks, has established close ties with many Tea Party activists around the country.[61]
Ideas to be included in the contract were proposed and debated on a website designed for that purpose and the resulting statements were voted on online, with 454,331 votes being cast. The resulting document including the vote percentages for the statements included was posted online on April 12, 2010.[62]
The Contract lists 10 agenda items that it encourages congressional candidates to follow:[63][64]
1.Identify constitutionality of every new law: 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 emissions trading: Stop the "cap and trade" administrative approach used to control carbon dioxide emissions by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide. (72.20%)
3.Demand a balanced federal budget: Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax modification. (69.69%)
4.Simplify the tax system: 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. (64.9%)
5.Audit federal government agencies for constitutionality: Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in an 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. (63.37%)
6.Limit annual growth in federal 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.Repeal the health care legislation passed on March 23, 2010: Defund, repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (56.39%)
8.Pass an 'All-of-the-Above' Energy Policy: Authorize the exploration of additional energy reserves to reduce American dependence on foreign energy sources and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation. (55.5%)
9.Reduce Earmarks: 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.Reduce Taxes: Permanently repeal all recent tax increases, and extend current temporary reductions in income tax, capital gains tax and estate taxes, currently scheduled to end in 2011. (53.38%)
No Democrats have signed onto the proposal, and the contract has also met resistance from some Republicans who have instead created the "Commitment to America." Brendan Buck, a spokesman for that agenda explained that the contract is too narrow in focus, and not exactly what the Republican party would include in its own top-10 list of priorities.[65]
en.wikipedia.org |
