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I'm more of the "Support the troops. Bring them home." variety. The only way to support them is to value their lives and not send them off on security missions for corporations that own our govt.

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This is why I cannot stand the Tea Party. They say they are "libertarian," but then want the biggest government they can buy to bomb brown people.

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The Tea Party wants limited government and less national debt. They are trying to do that now in Congress. I have never heard any Tea Partyer call for a bigger governement. You have? Cite it please.

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The moment the Tea Party became a threat, the Republican party bought it. Now the few who hold to the original values are lost in a sea of opposition voices.

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In the next 30 days, Florida lawmakers are poised to make it easier for insurance companies to raise rates, make it more difficult for women to receive an abortion and hand over control of prisons to private companies.

These are just a few of the proposals the Republican-led Legislature is pushing in the final weeks of its 60-day session. Others include radically changing the way the state handles Medicaid, state pensions, courts, growth and the environment.

The proposals are detailed, sweeping and encompass many conservative issues that legislators have resisted enacting in the past. And they are moving forward for one reason: They have the votes.

With a veto-proof majority, a hard-right conservative governor, and a determination to seize the moment in a non­election year, legislative leaders have packed the agenda — and Democrats are powerless to stop them.

"You've got a very conservative governor, president and speaker, so they've gone down some roads that people have kind of been afraid to go down before," said Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton.

The governor has already signed major legislation to change the way teachers are paid and to reduce compensation for the unemployed, and the Legislature has overridden seven vetoes of former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Next up are dozens of bills that remove government oversight, dismantle regulations and shift state jobs to the private sector. Also on the docket are plans to ask voters to amend the state Constitution to remove the ban on providing tax dollars to religious organizations, to make it easier for the Legislature to overturn rules imposed by the state Supreme Court, to ban public funding of abortions and to prohibit any laws requiring a person to buy health insurance.

Previous legislatures have tried and failed to pass similar bills. Among them:

• Allowing Citizens Property Insurance to raise its rates up to 25 percent and restrict homeowners with property valued at more than $500,000. (note: government power used to increase profits)

• Requiring all women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion. (note: bigger, more intrustive, government)

• Shifting all Medicaid patients into managed care plans. (reads: "privatize")

• Banning government unions from deducting dues from worker paychecks.

• Capping attorney fees in auto insurance disputes and restricting lawsuits against hospitals, nursing homes, doctors and foster care providers. (note: enlarging legislation--government--power)

• Removing the state from development decisions and reducing the ability of local governments to charge developers for the cost of roads and schools (increase state government power over local governments, and losing government money).

• Allowing private companies to run prisons and probation services in 18 counties. ("privatizing" dealing with criminals to increase profits for prison businesses)

Republican leaders say the proposals are a response to voter outrage — fueled by tea party activists in Florida and nationwide — to reduce government and balance the budget with no new taxes in the face of a $3.8 million shortfall. Democrats say the ideas are moving because there is nothing to stand in their way.

"They're exercising that muscle now because they can — not because they're right, not because that's what people want, but because they can," said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek.

Bennett (Republican) admits it makes him uneasy. "I get nervous when we have one party control everything and you don't have to negotiate, you don't have to go to the middle," he said.

A small number of Republican moderates have joined the Democrats[/u[] to point out that the no-new-taxes pledge is shrouded by the Legislature's plans to require public employees to pay a portion of their retirement costs, increase property insurance rates, raise utility rates for renewable energy and increase college tuition.

"Any time you vote for something that's going to hurt the pocketbooks of every home­owner in the state of Florida, every small businessman or woman in the state of Florida, that's a tax," said Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. (Republican)

Senate President Mike Haridopolos said that when workers contribute to their own pension, it "is not a tax increase." He defends the utility, tuition and insurance increases as a necessary evil. ("necessary evil" doesn't make them not taxes...when your costs are more, it's the same as being taxed by the government)

Others warn that by using the budget as a backdrop and the federal government as a foil for their broad policy shifts, the Legislature may be going too far.

"It's probably the strongest antifederalism we've had since Jim Crow days or a vote to secede," said Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera (Republican). He said he considers himself a fiscal conservative but is frightened by the "antifederalism sentiment" of the governor and legislative leaders who have rejected billions of federal dollars for health care, transportation and infrastructure. "That's misdirected. I think it's going to be a huge mistake."

"I think we're doing exactly what the people sent us up here to do — which is recognize the severity of the economic crisis we're in, the need for bold leadership to make unpopular, tough decisions,'' said House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park. (Then why reject already-allocated funds in a "severe economic crisis"?)

Gov. Rick Scott echoed Cannon's opinion. "We've got to make sure this is the best place to do business and so I'm going to make the tough choices," Scott said last week. (The best place for businesses maybe, but how about for PEOPLE to LIVE?? Oh, wait, they don't care about the people...)

Advocates for groups fighting the changes, however, say the sheer number of policy shifts and the steady pace at which House and Senate leaders have been pushing them has made it difficult, if not impossible, to stop.

David Murrell of the Police Benevolent Association, one of the public employee unions fighting the benefits cuts, puts it bluntly: "On some of these issues, these folks don't want the public to catch up."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said Alexander scrapped one pension reform bill compromise with another bill that more than doubled cuts.

"Votes are locked down before you even get into a committee meeting," said Eric Draper of the Florida Audubon Association. "The Democrats have no chance of stopping anything. They are irrelevant for the most part."

Senate Democratic leader Nan Rich of Weston said she disagrees that Republicans were given the mandate they claim to have. "They were given a mandate to fix the economy and create jobs and not turn the state upside down," she said. "The pendulum will swing back. It always does."

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Debate over federal spending levels no longer is driving the federal government toward an expected shutdown, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It’s turned into a deadlock over a raft of conservative policy “riders” that Republicans have insisted be a part of a budget bill, the Nevada Democrat says.

Republicans have been pushing to attach non-budget legislation they favor — such as abolishing funds for Planned Parenthood and curtailing pollution enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — to whatever measure lawmakers agree to in order to keep the government running beyond Friday.

“This debate used to be about saving money. That is no longer the case,” Reid says in remarks Thursday on the Senate floor. “The Tea Party is trying to push through its extreme social agenda – issues that have nothing to do with funding the government.

“We are very close on the cuts and how we make them. The only things – I repeat, the only things – holding up an agreement are women’s health and clean air,” he adds.

“This is an extreme agenda that has no place in this bill. This is a budget. This is a bill to keep the country running. It’s not a women’s health bill. It’s not an environmental bill,” he adds. “We will not solve in one night disagreements this country has been having for 40 years. That is not realistic. Right now, we have to be realistic. This isn’t the time – and we don’t have the time – to fight over the Tea Party’s extreme social agenda.”

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Abortion

The abortion rider that's received the most attention would prohibit the government from giving any money to Planned Parenthood. That passed as an amendment on the House floor. However, written into the base bill is a provision that would eliminate Title X -- a program that provides funding for family planning clinics across the country -- altogether.

But there's one in there, too, which would prohibit the city of Washington, D.C., from using its own, non-federal funds to pay for abortions, beyond the accepted limits for the use of federal funds -- rape, incest, or life of the mother. It also blocks funding for the U.S. Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation, the UN Population Fund, and any foreign NGOs that use non-U.S. funds to provide abortions.

The Environment

Before the House passed its spending bill, it tacked on several anti-environmental amendments to limit EPA authority. In particular, Republicans want to prevent the EPA from complying with a Supreme Court ruling requiring it to regulate green house gas pollution. One section of the base bill would prevent the EPA from proposing, implementing or enforcing rules to mitigate emissions of pollution.

On top of that additional specific amendments would block the EPA from limiting, or tightening limits on, toxic cement plant emissions and particulate emissions. Rep. Don Young (R-AK) secured an amendment that would exempt oil drilling activities in Alaska from EPA regulations.
Other riders would prevent the EPA from executing a plan to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, strip it of its power to prevent water pollution that endangers animals, and block them from setting regulations regarding the containment and handling of coal ash.

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Section 1475(b) would block the restoration of California’s San Joaquin River. This restoration agreement was supported by environmentalists, fishermen, farmers, urban water agencies, the Bush Administration, California’s Republican governor and even former Congressman Richard Pombo (AND CALIFORNIANS! We desperately need this). This rider would degrade water quality for millions of California residents and farmers, damage salmon restoration efforts, and reduce water supplies.

An amendment which would block EPA and other agencies from conducting meaningful oversight of mountaintop removal coal mining operations.

An amendment which would effectively strip EPA of its authority under the Clean Water Act to prohibit or restrict certain discharges that would have an “unacceptable adverse effect” on water, fish or wildlife.

An amendment which would prevent EPA from establishing minimum standards for the disposal and handling of coal ash as a hazardous waste. Coal ash is a well-documented threat to human health and the environment, and due to largely unregulated dumping, poses a threat to our waterways and drinking water.

An amendment which would prevent EPA from limiting toxic emissions from cement plants. The amendment would block the EPA's efforts to keep 16,000 pounds of mercury a year out of the air.

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In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots, will urge Republicans in the House and Senate to keep their focus on shrinking the government.

"On behalf of limited-government conservatives everywhere, we write to urge you and your colleagues in Washington to put forward a legislative agenda in the next Congress that reflects the principles of the Tea Party movement," they write to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell in an advance copy provided to POLITICO. "This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue."

The letter's signatories range from GOProud's co-founder and Chairman Christopher Barron — a member of a group encouraging Dick Cheney to run for president — to Tea Party leaders with no particular interest in the gay rights movement. [Dick Cheney is in favor of smaller government???]

As of Sunday evening, the letter had 17 signatories. They include tea party organizers, conservative activists and media personalities from across the country, including radio host Tammy Bruce, bloggers Bruce Carroll, Dan Blatt and Doug Welch, and various local coordinators for the Tea Party Patriots and other tea party groups.

"When they were out in the Boston Harbor, they weren't arguing about who was gay or who was having an abortion," said Ralph King, a letter signatory who is a Tea Party Patriots national leadership council member, as well as an Ohio co-coordinator.

King said he signed onto the letter because GOProud seemed to be genuine in pushing for fiscal conservatism and limited government.

"Am I going to be the best man at a same sex-marriage wedding? That's not something I necessarily believe in," said King. "I look at myself as pretty socially conservative. But that's not what we push through the Tea Party Patriots."

That indifference is essentially the point of the gay conservative group.

"For almost two years now, the tea party has been laser-focused on the size of government," said Barron, who said his group and the tea partiers are part of the "leave-me-alone coalition."

"No one has been talking about social issues - not even the socially conservative candidates who won tea party support," Barron said.

Economic and social conservatives have sparred for months over the priority of questions like abortion and gay rights even as conservative energy on issues of debt, taxation and, above all, the size of government fueled the Republican Party's dramatic recovery since Barack Obama's election.

And while their agendas often overlap - foes of abortion and big government alike opposed the health care overhaul - the small-government impulses of the new conservative grassroots groups have sometimes come into conflict with the desire of religious conservatives to give the federal government a moral role. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was recently pilloried by social conservative leaders for calling for a "truce" on divisive social issues.

Polling has shown that Tea Party members hold socially conservative views, but don't consider issues like abortion a top priority. But social conservative grassroots played a key role in a handful of election campaigns, including the ouster of three pro-gay marriage Iowa judges. Exit polls last week also suggested that some gay voters had shifted toward Republican ranks, with about a third of self-identified gays backing Republican House candidates.

Barron and the tea party organizers behind the letter hope to get other tea party groups to sign on after the formal unveiling Monday.

"We're not talking about pushing social conservatives out of the tea party movement. Those people aren't only welcome but they're a critical part of this movement." said Barron.

But ideas like the one Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) floated about banning gay teachers run counter to the tea party ethos, Barron argues. "How is that limited government?" he said.

The alliance underscores many of the tensions and divisions in the freewheeling, leaderless tea party movement. While GOProud is ambivalent on the issue of same-sex marriage, it does openly advocate the repeal of the military's"Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy - something some of the letter's tea party signatories disagreed strongly with.

Tea Party Patriots Maine coordinator Andrew Ian Dodge said that pushing DADT repeal would be a distraction from fiscal issues like deregulation and lowering taxes and he hopes that the letter also reminds GOProud of this fact.

"It is a little bit of a distraction," said Dodge about the possible repeal of DADT. "Why divide our forces?"

Ultimately, the tea party forces sympathetic to the GOProud letter said they just want to focus on fiscal issues, even if they personally hold socially conservative views.

Letter signatory Everett Wilkinson, coordinator of the Florida Tea Party Patriots, said that his group encourages people interested in social issues to find an outlet for their passions - just not the Tea Party Patriots. "We really don't focus on any social issues," he said.

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