We, the undersigned, call upon those seeking to represent us in
public office to sign the Contract from America and by doing so commit
to support each of its agenda items, work to bring each agenda item to
a vote during the first year, and pledge to advocate on behalf of
individual liberty, limited government, and economic freedom.
Individual
Liberty
Our moral, political, and economic liberties are inherent, not granted
by our government. It is essential to the practice of these liberties
that we be free from restriction over our peaceful political expression
and free from excessive control over our economic choices.
Limited
Government
The purpose of our government is to exercise only those limited powers
that have been relinquished to it by the people, chief among these
being the protection of our liberties by administering justice and
ensuring our safety from threats arising inside or outside our
country’s sovereign borders. When our government ventures beyond these
functions and attempts to increase its power over the marketplace and
the economic decisions of individuals, our liberties are diminished and
the probability of corruption, internal strife, economic depression,
and poverty increases.
Economic
Freedom
The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is
the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated
expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system
that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic
system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our
fundamental rights as free people.
1. Protect
the Constitution
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 Cap
& Trade
Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise
consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with
virtually no impact on global temperatures. (
72.20%)
3.
Demand a Balanced Budget
Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget
with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike. (
69.69%)
4. Enact
Fundamental Tax Reform
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. (
64.90%)
5. Restore
Fiscal Responsibility & Constitutionally Limited Government in
Washington
Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete 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, or ripe for
wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited
government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning. (
63.37%)
6. End
Runaway Government 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. Defund,
Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care
Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health
care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more
affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market
health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state
boundaries. (
56.39%)
8. Pass an
‘All-of-the-Above” Energy Policy
Authorize the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our
dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce
regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering
prices and creating competition and jobs. (
55.51%)
9. Stop the
Pork
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. Stop the Tax Hikes
Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income,
capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to begin in 2011. (
53.38%)
About Us
The Contract from America is a grassroots-generated, crowd-sourced,
bottom-up call for real economic conservative and good governance
reform in Congress.
The Contract from America initiative was developed within the
decentralized tea party and 912 movements. Ryan Hecker, a Houston Tea
Party Society activist, developed the concept of creating a
grassroots-generated call for reform prior to the April 15, 2009 Tax
Day Tea Party rallies.
Tea Party Patriots, the principal organizer of the Contract from
America project and an umbrella group of hundreds of tea parties around
the country, promoted and helped launch the Contract from America site
on September 1, 2009. But while one activist came up with the idea of a
document generated by the people, this process would not have been
successful without the creativity of hundreds of thousands of
freedom-loving Americans, who from September 2009 to January 2010,
submitted and debated thousands of ideas on the Contract from America
website. Thousands of grassroots leaders nationwide also did their part
by filling out a series of surveys that helped narrow the boldest and
most viable ideas down to 22. Now is your chance to make a real
difference and vote for the top 10 ideas out of the 22 finalists that
you believe should be in the final Contract from America, to be
unveiled at tea parties around the country on April 15, 2010.
This project would also not have been a success without the hard
work and innovation of many individuals and organizations to achieve
the goals of this project.
Robin Stublen with Punta Gorda Tea Party, Judy and Greg Holloway
with Austin Tea Party Patriots, Felicia Cravens and Josh Parker with
Houston Tea Party Society, Rob Gaudet with Shreveport Bossier Tea
Party, Kellen Giuda with Tea Party 365, and Andrew Ian Dodge with Maine
Tea Party Patriots have played pivotal roles in the early support and
continued promotion of the Contract from America initiative.
Scott Graves of The Liberty Lab has worked tirelessly developing
this website and building online support for this project.
Adam Brandon, Max Pappas, and Tabitha Hale of FreedomWorks have been
instrumental in helping organize and unite a broad-based coalition of
grassroots organizations, new media outlets, and public policy experts
behind the Contract from America, as have Adam Radman with Americans
for Tax Reform, Andrew Moylan with National Taxpayers’ Union, Ginni
Thomas with Liberty Central, Adam Waldeck with American Solutions, and
Lori Roman with Regular Folks United.
These individuals, though, are just a small sample of the dozens of
local tea parties and hundreds of other individuals, too many to
mention here, who have been big supporters and promoters of this
initiative from the beginning.
Now you can make a difference! With your help in voting for the
ideas to be in the final document, we will collectively send a message
to the politicians that we are no longer silent. They represent us and
must to listen our ideas now.