Proposed Missouri Tea Party, a political party dedicated to the Constitutional principles upon which this country was formed: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Citizens of a Constitutional Republic cannot enjoy their God-given liberty if it’s constantly being taken away from them by corrupt political insiders.

General Statement:
We The People of the several States created a federal government to serve as our limited agent, delegating to the federal government only those limited and few powers listed in the Constitution, and no others.
We recognize the federal government has seized unlimited power over virtually every aspect of Americans’ lives in violation of the Constitution of the United States, specifically with respect to the Tenth Amendment.
We call upon freedom-loving citizens everywhere to stand with us, as candidates for state,local and federal offices, to pass meaningful and sensible legislation to restore the most critical check and balance deliberately designed into our constitutional republic: that of strong, sovereign states.
We pledge to limit and restrain all federal government exercise of power that exceeds in any way the plain language of those few powers listed in the Constitution and to nullify all others that exceed such limit.
When we restore the balance of power between the states and the federal government according to the Constitution, our country will enjoy the dynamic blessings of liberty and prosperity.
The statement above was drafted and approved by candidates participating in the Tenth Amendment Summit – February 25, 2010 in Atlanta Georgia.

In the 2010 mid-term elections, Americans concerned about their country, and the future in store for their prodigy, undertook significant grass-roots efforts to stem the tide of government gone astray. The government of the United States has expanded itself well beyond its Constitutional limits, endangering freedom, liberty, and our future as a nation. These groups greatly enhanced the typical mid-term congressional election swing, as well as state and local elections, reverberating its power throughout all levels of elected government.
However, groups that were seeking to maintain their power tried to control the various autonomous tea parties with various levels of success. We the People need to chart the course of our national and local future, not well-funded, and well-connected insiders.


The Missouri Tea Party [Party] intends to give these independent, local tea parties the legal protection that only a political party can provide. All legitimate power begins locally, and as such, participating local tea parties are empowered with candidate selections in their areas, from candidates that adhere with accepted tea party principles.
We do not wish to create layers of leadership and hierarchy common to typical political parties, instead legitimate, documented local Tea Parties and similar groups (9-12 etc.) will provide input and candidates, with each having input within the [proposed] party.

Our [proposed] platform:

1. Sovereign States. The several States created the federal government to serve them, delegating to a federal government only those limited and few powers listed in the Constitution, and no others. Concerned about abuse of powers, they further added a Bill of Rights to further contain that federal government. Over the years, it has expanded to the point that no living American has lived under that original contract as intended. Much of what we call a federal government is Unconstitutional, and those agencies and programs that fall outside the enumerated powers, as written in the Constitution should be handed over to the states, the rightful owners of those programs and agencies as per the 10th Amendment. The states however are also limited by the 14th Amendment they ratified, to include the Bill of Rights within state law, as it is also federal law.

2. No deficit spending. If the federal government doesn’t have the money they cannot beg, borrow, and steal to get it. No Unconstitutional spending. The Constitution allows for two years of debt, and that is limited to use for the Military.

3. No fiat Money. A return to a gold standard or a non-fiat equivalent.
Elimination of the Federal Reserve, placing that responsibility back with the Congress where the Constitution placed it. Restricting the ability to print “free” money will protect the value of our dollar and greatly reduce the ability of the government to tax citizens without their permission. A phase out of our current fiat money that only has brought inflation, loss of buying power and stability.

4. No term limits. While term limits are tempting, replacing elected officials with lifetime background bureaucrats is no improvement. We do not think Amending the Constitution is something to take lightly, and therefore would like to greatly reduce the power and scope of federal offices, (as intended by the Constitution) so there is no great desire for power brokers to stay forever. Also strict limits on government employees to limit “insider” brokering.


5. Reduction of the size and scope of the federal government. The elimination of Unconstitutional federal agencies and the elimination of all government run “corporations”. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, PBS/NPR, Amtrak and other quasi government agencies, they cannot be permitted funds or special access. Railroads for example are given rights-of way to provide the public good, they need to work out passenger rail among themselves as they did for 100 years before the government took over passenger rail. Similarly over the air media has a responsibility to provide for the public good in exchange for air space. Similarly no subsidies for industries or businesses. Make money in the public arena, or fail. Therefore the federal agencies must be eliminated and their powers removed, and the agencies/programs passed off to the states to do with as they wish.

6. End abuse of the “Commerce Clause” and “Supremacy clause” of the United States Constitution. Congress has abused these clauses to regulate everything imaginable. The Constitution allows the federal government certain “enumerated powers” and the Bill of rights contains the federal government’s power to only those things, reserving everything else to the states respectively or the people. The “Commerce clause” just as with the “Supremacy clause” is to only apply to the 18 things enumerated within the Constitution.

7. Freedom of free speech and political donations. Private individuals should be allowed to give as much as they desire in keeping with the 1st Amendment, However all political donations or like-kind gifts need to be 100% traceable, but in keeping with the 1st Amendment, unlimited. No corporate donations, or passing money to individuals by proxy.

8. Repeal of the 16th Amendment. Replace it with a flat tax or “Fair Tax that is not easily adjustable upwards, yet automatically decreases as federal expenses are reduced. This will allow a fair playing field, as well as removing the ability of politicians to pick winners and losers using the tax code. This must be implemented with a mutually exclusive clause so that there can never be both an income and sales/fair tax at the same time.

9. Repeal the 17th Amendment. Originally state’s legislators chose their Senators, choosing their Senators as originally intended gave the states a voice in Washington. Removing this necessary check-and-balance, has greatly weakened our great nation, by bloating the federal government far beyond its Constitutional powers.