As its first major act, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted today on a bill promising the complete repeal of Obamacare. The bill passed with a unanimous Republican vote along with the support of 3 House Democrats, proving that the demand to repeal Obamacare is a real, bipartisan fight that will lead to a serious debate in the Senate.

While many have tried to downplay the vote as merely symbolic, it is far more important than that: repeal is real. I believe that repeal is achievable, and in fact likely, because the American people want and expect it. The new class of Republicans campaigned on repeal in this election, and we intend to hold each and every one of them accountable to their own promises.

From here, we need to keep in mind that while this is the first giant step in the right direction, this fight is far from over. From here we must continue to build momentum and push Harry Reid to bring it to a vote in the Senate. Ultimately, we will push forward until this is on the desk of President Obama.

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Yesterday, the Senate voted to take up consideration of S.510, the so-called Food Safety Modernization Act, which would grant the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) more control over our diets. The supposed intention behind the legislation is to protect consumers from food-borne illnesses. But will it really?

If passed, the misnamed Food Safety and Modernization Act would authorize the FDA to tell farmers how to grow their crops. Federal bureaucrats who likely know little to nothing about farming will set the guidelines on appropriate temperatures, what soil to use, how much water to use and what animals are allowed to be on certain fields.

A study by Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) office states “on the whole this bill represents a weighty new regulatory structure on the food industry that will be particularly difficult for small producers and farms to comply with (with little evidence it will make food safer)”

Sen. Jon Tester has introduced the “Tester Amendment” which would allegedly prevent these harmful regulations from affecting small family farms. However, Campaign for Liberty says these regulations will still be imposed on whoever the FDA decides. It could even affect your home garden if you sell vegetables or fruits at a local farmers market.

President John Tate states: “Don’t fall for their rhetoric about a few provisions that supposedly address concerns of small-scale farmers; the FDA still has all the power it needs to shut down family farms on a whim. In other words, it will be up to bureaucrats to decide whether or not local food production is decimated by federal regulations or shut down.”

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From the Diaries

In Sunday’s Washington Post the Tea Party movement is described as ” a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process,” with the implication that the structure is an inherent flaw in the movement. What this comes down to is disparity in the world view.

The entire liberal model, whether in economics or politics, is based on central planning and top down organizational structure. Party leaders, bureaucrats and government officials dictate and proclaim from on high what the agenda should be, and how it is to be executed. Our model is based on what Hayek called the spontaneous order of the market. It is this decentralized confederacy which allows for free exchange of ideas. Ideas can be traded just like goods and services, with their value determined by the price mechanism. As ideas are traded in this world of disparate knowledge, the best ideas percolate to the top. This is how Tea Party activists created the grassroots pledge known as the Contract FROM America.

The “disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings” is in fact a quality that the Left has been foolish to overlook. There is immense strength in the division of power, and the fact that there is no such figurehead among this groundswell of freedom fighters has instead created a type of synergy among its thousands of leaders. People across all walks of life are becoming engaged in the process – they understand policy, and are inspired to participate in the conversation rather than sit on the sidelines.

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A new POLITICO poll reveals once again the fundamental disconnect between the ruling establishment and those that pay their salaries. 77% of D.C. elites don’t believe that tea party candidates will be able bring change to Washington.

It’s a predictable opinion considering they have a vested interest in the continued growth of the federal government. To bureaucrats, lobbyists and government contractors, we represent last call on a profligate spending bender. We are the hangover they dread in the coming morning.

The pessimistic response to the poll does nothing but verify that we are on the right track. The whole purpose of this movement was to make those profiting off irresponsible government spending so uncomfortable that they clean up or get out. These beneficiaries of the earmarks and backroom deals have a direct financial motivation to prevent the type of reform that is essential to restore fiscal sanity.

This may be why there is measurable discomfort when discussing whether or not gridlock will occur as a result of the midterm elections. Is gridlock a good thing? 46 percent of those polled outside the Beltway believe that it would occur, but just 29 percent believe that it could bring back the oversight and accountability necessary to restrain government.

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In what Freud would call projection, the Left continues to accuse the Tea Party of using tactics that they are using.

The accusations flew when around one million people attended last year’s 9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington. How could that many people be that upset? Why would they come out en masse against the President that was to be America’s Savior? Surely they must have been bought and paid for by foreign interests and evil corporations!

The truth is that there is no such thing as a political savior, and Americans realized very quickly that there is no way to spend yourself out of debt. The uprising was organic, and we could not have manufactured something on that scale if we’d tried. It simply doesn’t work.

Case in point: The OneNation rally, held on October 2nd of this year. Even the most well funded and organized groups cannot duplicate the true power held by a decentralized groundswell of the American people. The beautiful chaos of our movement, when set against the centrally planned OneNation rally, reveals what Americans have always known: Power released by individuals will always triumph over the artificial control of planners and bureaucrats.

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