[Vision2020] New Idaho House group, Tea Party Back Same Ideals

[Tom Hansen]

This would be a great topic to bring before the state Democratic Caucus,
but I understand their doors are closed.

Ah, well, as my friend stated . . .

"So much for transparency!"

With special thanks to a friend and long-time Viz subscriber, courtesy of
the Idaho Statesman at:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/531/story/1046455.html

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New Idaho House group, Tea Party back same ideals
By JOHN MILLER - Associated Press Writer

As 400 Tea Party activists rallied outside the Idaho Capitol on Monday to
shout down federal government, more than a dozen lawmakers have quietly
formed a smaller but equally conservative new group inside the building to
pursue similar goals: promote gun rights, kill health care reform, maybe
even abolish the Federal Reserve.

Members of this ad-hoc state House group, which has drafted a charter
called "Platform for Prosperity" after a similar Republican movement in
Colorado, said they aren't directly linked to the organizers of the
hourlong Tea Party gathering on the Capitol's south steps.

Still, at least four Platform affiliates were featured speakers:
Republican Reps. Raul Labrador of Eagle, Pete Nielsen of Mountain Home,
Phil Hart of Athol and Lynn Luker of Boise. Others in the group included
Reps. Steve Thayn of Emmett, Steve Hartgen of Twin Falls, Janice McGeachin
of Idaho Falls and Marv Hagedorn of Meridian.

After three meetings since late last year, its members are promising
legislation in 2010, including measures aimed at cutting Idaho's income
tax rate; requiring that silver mined from northern Idaho be accepted as
payment for taxes; abolishing mandatory licensing for midwives; and
scuttling President Obama's health care reform, should it pass Congress.

"I think we have an ear for what the Tea Party movement is saying," said
Hartgen, on how these two groups' interests have converged. "People are on
fire about these issues. These people aren't protesters. They are American
citizens."

In November, about 25 current and former GOP Colorado lawmakers, including
ex-U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, unveiled their own conservative "Platform for
Prosperity" to oppose tax hikes and new fees, back loosening oil and gas
regulations, and win back the governor's office.

Thayn, a second-term lawmaker from southwestern Idaho, said the Colorado
message resonated so much with the Idaho House's conservative wing that
some of them decided to follow suit.

Their platform includes strengthening the economy, defending U.S.
citizenship and pushing back against a "federal government that is too
big, too intrusive and all too eager to seize power from the states."

In a letter Thayn intended for Platform for Prosperity members last week
and obtained by The Associated Press, he also wrote of efforts to "alter
and repair some of the damage done during the Lincoln years and shortly
after the Civil War."

Thayn said he was referring to unchecked expansion of government he
believes began in the mid-19th century.

"What we're seeing is the growth of the federal government - and the loss
of power at the state level," he said.

That same frustration boiled at Monday's Tea Party rally, with protesters
carrying signs still questioning if Obama was born on U.S. soil and
accusing fat-cat bankers of profiting from bailouts while bankrupting
America. The event drew just a fifth of the 2,000 people who attended a
Boise Tea Party event last April, but many remain angry.

"I want to support and/or foster the nonviolent overthrow of the Obama
administration," said Boise resident Roger Wood.

Wood had just heard Rep. Phil Hart, another Platform for Prosperity
member, rail against the Federal Reserve banking system as "offensive to
scripture" in the Bible, including the Old Testament's Leviticus.

Hart, who in the 1990s refused to pay personal income tax for seven years
while unsuccessfully challenging the constitutionality of federal tax
laws, described the new House group as a bulwark to promote ideals shared
by many Tea Party members inside the state Capitol.

"We are for nullifying anything coming out of Washington, D.C., where they
don't have constitutional authority to act," he told the AP.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown