Our Mission Statement
The Staten Island Tea Party was organized to give ordinary American citizens a platform from which their voices could be heard by their government. Caught up in the demands of everyday life, people often feel disconnected from their elected representatives, and watch in helpless frustration as their government takes bigger and bolder steps AWAY from the principles enunciated by the Founding Fathers in our Constitution.
Therefore, we wish to make it known to our elected officials that we, the people of Staten Island and citizens of the United States, assert the following:
1) We demand that our government practice the same level of fiscal responsibility that we, as ordinary citizens, must abide by in running our own households. We, the people, cannot spend more than we earn - neither should our government. Further, we reject the necessity of spending trillions of dollars under the guise of "economic stimulus," thereby burdening future generations of Americans with crushing debt, in order to achieve aims more in line with crafting a collectivist society than stimulating the economy;
2) We demand that our government stop "bailing out" private enterprises in an attempt to gain control of those entities, and that government interference in private enterprise be limited only to that which is strictly permitted by our Constitution;
3) We demand that our government get out of the business of social engineering through manipulation of the mortgage markets. Further, we do not believe that it is in the best interest of our country to "bail out" those who have obtained mortgages they could not pay to buy houses they could not afford, and we condemn any scheme that punishes the responsible homeowner while unfairly benefiting the irresponsible;
4) We demand that our government recognize that we, who earn our own money, can spend our own money better than any elected politician, and that we refuse to have the fruits of our labors redistributed, through excessive taxation, to those individuals who wish to lay claim on what is not rightfully theirs. Further, we believe that the producers of economic wealth in America are NOT the enemy, and that they should not be forced, at the point of a gun, to bear a greater tax burden than the rest of our society. To this end, we demand that the current complex, unfair and confiscatory tax code be abolished, to be replaced with a simple and fair Flat Tax or Fair Tax;
5) We demand that our government provide our businesses and industries, both large and small, with a nurturing climate that is conducive to our economic well-being. Further, we believe it is unconscionable that the United States continues to impose upon its entrepreneurs and risk-takers one of the highest corporate tax burdens in the world;
6) We demand that our government abandon attempts to socialize our healthcare system. Further, we believe that socialized medicine is now, and always has been, a failure wherever it has been attempted, and we condemn efforts to nationalize our healthcare system as merely another step in the advancement of a socialist agenda, which we, the people of the United States absolutely and in a single voice REJECT;
7) We demand that our government adopt stricter, common-sense attitudes towards immigration. Entry should be restricted only to those who can become productive members of our society, and we demand that our border patrols be enhanced to effectively shut the door on illegal border crossing. We believe that the borders of the United States are sacrosanct and should remain so, and that anyone crossing these borders respect and accept our culture, our language and our laws;
8) We demand that our government set as one of its highest priorities the goal of energy independence. Further, we believe that such independence will come when we remove restrictions on nuclear power plants and support the use of clean coal, and we support the removal of unreasonable roadblocks on oil and gas exploration and drilling in the continental United States, the Gulf of Mexico and on the continental shelf;
9) We demand that our government recognize that the War Against Islamic Extremists is NOT an abstraction or a matter for the courts, but rather a danger as great as any this nation has ever faced, and represents an existential threat to the country in which we live. Further, we demand that our government recognize that enemy combatants DO NOT have the same rights as American citizens and should be treated accordingly;
10) We demand that our government remember the courage and the love of liberty that permeated the simple people of 13 separate colonies over 235 years ago as they drank from the fountainhead of freedom; and we demand that our government respects the checks and balances inherent in our constitution; and we demand that our government remembers that we are not a collective, but a country of individuals, with rights and freedoms guaranteed to each of us by our creator - not by our government; and we demand that our government recognize that we, the people, installed them in their offices and that we, the people, are obligated to remove them should they cease to become our leaders, but instead become our oppressors; and finally, we recall with pride the spirit that moved a small band of men to an act of civil disobedience in 1773, an act so bold and so extraordinary that the repercussions of their "tea party" reverberate throughout the world even today.