Newt Gingrich Wins Tea Party Patriots Straw Poll

More the 23,000 people participated in the Tea Party Patriots Presidential Tele-Forum and Tea Party Straw Poll last night. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum were on the call last night to answer questions that were submitted by local Tea Party leaders.

The results of the straw poll taken from the more than 23,000 participants on the call are as follows;

Newt Gingrich 31%
Michele Bachmann 28%
Mitt Romney 20%
Rick Santorum 16%
Ron Paul 3%
Rick Perry 2%
Jon Huntsman 0% (.34%)
(Results are rounded to nearest percentage point. Margin of error +/-1.59%)

(Interpretation: The following question was posed to the listeners for each candidate with 1 being Not Enthusiastic and 5 being Extremely Enthusiastic. “On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest, how enthusiastic would you be if were the nominee?” This chart shows how enthusiastic the participants would be in the event that each candidate were the nominee.)

Check the TPP website later this week for audio clips of all of the candidates and speakers

Special Thanks to:

Emery McClendon, TPP Local Coordinator, Fort Wayne, IN
Julianne Thompson, TPP Local Coordinator, Atlanta, GA
Herman Cain, Businessman / Former GOP Presidential Candidate
Steve King, Congressman from Iowa

Thank you to all of the candidates & callers who were able to participate!

New Tool to Track the Money in the 2012 Race for the White House

Here is a great new tool from Center for Responsive Politics to track the money for the 2012 White House race....
From Open Secrets --

As the presidential money chase continues to heat up, the Center for Responsive Politics is rolling out several new features to help you keep tabs on the 2012 race for the White House.

Part of the "Banking on Becoming President" database on  OpenSecrets.org, these features aim to help the public better understand the relationships between the men and women currently campaigning to lead the country and the moneyed special interest groups eager to help them raise the massive amounts of money needed to do it.

Among the new features are new graphs and tables that display how much candidates are raising and from whom -- as well as how their war chests stack up against one another. 

Presidential candidates recently reached another milestone in the the 2012 race when they filed their third-quarter fund-raising reports with the Federal Election Commission. 

OpenSecrets.org is now not only tracking the summary information, we also allows users to break down those fund-raising figures over time -- comparing day by day, week by week, month by month or quarter by quarter.

Dick Morris on the Herman Cain "9-9-9" Plan

From Dick Morris --

In 1980, facing a terrible economy, Ronald Reagan called for a new tax program: 10-10-10. Based on the Kemp-Roth bill, he called for 10 percent cuts in income taxes for three years. He got it, and it kindled 20 years of prosperity.

Now, Herman Cain understands that we need fundamental reform to get our economy moving. He calls for replacing the current system with just three levies of 9 percent each on personal income, corporate income and consumption. There would be no capital gains tax, inheritance tax, Social Security tax or Medicare tax. Just 9-9-9.


His proposal is breathtaking. Currently, the lowest top tax rate is Poland’s 18 percent. And Poland is the only European nation that had no recession. If Cain passes 9-9-9, we will thrive and become the destination of choice for every business and businessman. Look at what Reagan’s tax cuts achieved, and at the best-performing state economies, where there is no income tax.

The proposal, naturally, attracts critics and skeptics.

Some worry that it will add to the deficit. But that’s not likely.

• Americans now earn $12.5 trillion of personal income. Tax it at 9 percent with no deductions and you generate about $1.125 billion.
• We spend $10.3 trillion. A 9 percent tax would yield about $927 billion.
• Net corporate income (after dividends) is $1.1 trillion. A 9 percent levy would generate $100 billion.
• That comes to $2.152 billion, about the same as our actual revenues of $2.162 billion for fiscal 2010.

And then, when you factor in the economic growth this plan will engender, the scenario becomes even better.

Liberals worry that the tax would shift the burden from the rich to the middle class. No, sir. Americans making $50,000 to $60,000 a year now pay an average of 6 percent of their income in income taxes. But they also pay 6.5 percent in FICA levies and 2.9 percent in Medicare payroll taxes (a total of 15.4 percent). The Cain proposal would replace these with a flat 9 percent, saving them 6.4 percent.

Of course, the middle class would also have to pay a 9 percent sales tax, but it would be largely offset by the savings in their payroll taxes.

Cain says that competitive pressures would hold down prices and force businesses to eat much of the 9 percent sales tax. Employers would not have to pay their 6.5 percent share of payroll in Social Security taxes, and their corporate taxes would be cut. For commodities with high price elasticity — like cars — competition will hold down prices. But for inelastic purchases — like food and drugs — some of the tax would probably be passed on. For the middle class? It’s a wash.

More compelling is the possible impact on the poor. A family making $20,000 to $30,000 a year pays only 3 percent of its income in taxes (much of it more than offset by tax credits). But it still pays 6.5 percent in FICA and 2.9 percent in Medicare taxes. So the requirement that such a family pay 9 percent in personal income taxes would probably be fully offset by the cut in payroll taxes. But the poor might face higher prices. Cain plans to spell out how he can mitigate the impact on the poor through special empowerment zones. We need to see the details. Certainly, the poor would benefit from the increased employment, wages and growth the Cain tax cuts would generate.

Conservatives worry that 9-9-9 will open the door to a European Value-Added Tax that starts at 9 percent but goes up each year. Cain proposes that a two-thirds vote be required to raise rates. But a simple act of Congress could change that.

The real answer is political. If the Republican Party surges back to power in 2012, captures the Senate, keeps the House and takes the presidency, it can make sure the rates don’t go up. Republicans usually can count on 40 votes in the Senate; we just have to use them.

The 9-9-9 is a good, good plan that can save our economy.

Should we be Wary of Rick Perry?

From Liberty Laura --

Would you support a Presidential candidate who.....

1. As a Democrat State Representative supported Al Gore for president and served as Gore’s campaign state chairman in 1988?

2. Was publicly thanked by Mexican President Vicente Fox, on November 6, 2003, for offering in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants?

3. Issued an executive order in 2007 that would have forced almost every single girl in his state to receive the Gardasil vaccine before entering the sixth grade?

4. Spearheaded the effort to lease roads in Texas to foreign companies, to turn roads that are already free to drive on into toll roads, and to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor which would be part of the planned  NAFTA superhighway system often argued to be necessary infrastructure for regional government under Council on Foreign Relations plans for a North American Community and the Security & Prosperity Partnership of North America (Agenda 21 anybody)?

5. Attended the Bilderberg meeting in 2007 (the secretive fascist New World Order organization) in direct violation of the Logan Act.  Associating himself with that organization should be a red flag for all American voters.

6. Privatized TxU (Texas Utilities), handing it off to global investment firms and private control who are heavily involved in the Bilderberg group? The $45 billion TxU buyout involves at least three firms represented annually at Bilderberg - Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., and Credit Suisse First Boston.

7. Launched in 2003 the Texas Enterprise Fund and in 2004 gave $20 million to Countrywide Financial, the mortgage creating machine that was a major player in the sub-prime crisis, that promised to create 7,500 new jobs in the state by 2010? In 2007, while slashing jobs and with its stock price plummeting, Countrywide was acquired in a fire sale by Bank of America.

8. Massively increased the size of government spending and government debt in Texas? “From 2001 to 2010, state debt alone grew from $13.4 billion to $37.8 billion, according to the Texas Bond Review Board. That’s an increase of 281%.”

Rick Perry is slick and handsome and will woo the ladies with a good tough Texas speech, but when Americans all over the country take a hard look at his record, they may not like what they see. Rick Perry is a globalist who has raised taxes and fees numerous times, doubling the size of the Texas budget.

Do we want to double the size of the Federal budget?

Right now, Rick Perry is trying to portray himself as the savior of the Republican Party by reluctantly riding in on his white horse after pledging he would not run for President as recently as 2010. He launched his deception with a fraudulent prayer rally in Houston that was a media staged event to make him look like some big religious warrior ready to battle the evil forces of Washington in the middle of a debt crisis neither side was winning.

Please, do not be fooled. It is all a hyped-up, media frenzy staged to make all the other Republican candidates look weak and pathetic. Please ask yourself, do you want another media hand-picked-especially-for-you Republican candidate like McCain or do you want to choose the candidate yourself?

Do not let the media choose for you, not even FOX News or Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck. You have the power to choose beyond what the media wants you to choose because as the polls show, any generic Republican candidate will handily beat Obama in 2012. It does not have to be Perry.

Please do your research and choose wisely.