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Mike Lee on Principles & Values |
The solution, I proposed, is for the American people to demand that whenever any member of Congress votes to fund a federal program or create a new one, that person should explain where Congress gets its constitutional authority to run that program.
As our nascent, limited-government movement gathered supporters and volunteers, we decided to form an organization to serve as the vehicle for the message of constitutionally limited government. We named the organization the "Article I Society," recognizing the part of the Constitution that outlines the basic powers that properly belong to the federal government. By November 2009, the Article I Society had signed up hundreds of volunteers from nearly every part of the state.
Bennett was widely considered to be a "good guy" who was mostly reliable on Republican issues. Most notably for the delegates from Utah, he had voted for the Wall Street bailout. As Bennett spoke to the gathering, the chant of "TARP, TARP, TARP" echoed across Convention Hall. Bennett was ultimately replaced by the Tea Party underdog candidate Mike Lee, a staunch supporter of limited government and the very first signer of the Contract from America.
One pundit fumed, "It is a damn outrage." Another wailed, "It's almost a nonviolent coup." Get used to it, guys.
The Tea Party movement is a populist conservative social movement in the United States that emerged in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests. The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: the stimulus package; te healthcare bill; and the TARP bailouts. The name "Tea Party" refers to the Boston Tea Party of 1773, the source of the phrase, "No Taxation Without Representation."
