WASHINGTON, DC: Yesterday saw Americans rise up all over the country protesting high taxes and big government. 454,331 tea party patriots have logged on to ContractFromAmerica.org and voted for principles that they feel need to be incorporated by Congress to protect our American way of life. Their web site insists that this platform is from the ground up, not “handed down from on high by old-bull politicians, but one handed up from the true grassroots in this country.” Basic principles include:

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. ContractFromAmerica.org

So far the results of their voting have prioritized these items for inclusion in their new Contract From America:

1. Require each bill to identify its constitutional authorization
2. Defund, repeal, and replace government-run health care
3. Demand a balanced budget
4. End runaway government spending by imposing a statutory cap limiting growth in federal spending
5. Enact fundamental reform to simplify and lower taxes
6. Create a Blue Ribbon task force that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs
7. Reject cap-and-trade
8. Pass an “all of the above” energy policy
9. Stop the 2011 tax hikes
10. Stop the pork.

This is the type of activity all should get involved with. Visit their web site and get involved.