Gary Glenn |
The plan, based on the grassroots-generated "Tea Party Budget" proposal, was unveiled Friday by Senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Mike Lee of Utah, all members of the TEA Party Caucus of the U.S. Senate.
Glenn called the plan “a blueprint to restore America’s freedoms, prosperity and leadership in the world.”
“This is a plan as big and bold as the crisis and despair which Senator Debbie Stabenow and Barack Obama have created for the working men and women of our country,” Glenn said. “I’m eager to join Senators DeMint, Paul, and Lee in taking action to save our country from the brink of socialism and financial ruin and ensure that its people are never again threatened by the radical far-left social and economic experimentation we’ve endured under Stabenow and Obama.”
Called “A Platform to Revitalize America,” the proposal would:
- make Medicare a premium support plan that would give seniors the same healthcare plan enjoyed by members of Congress, while saving an estimated $1 trillion over 10 years;
- restore discretionary spending to 2008 levels;
- freeze foreign aid spending;
- eliminate the Departments of Commerce, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, while privatizing the Transportation Security Administration;
- repeal Obamacare and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act;
- permit construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and implement broad tax reform by establishing a 17 percent flat tax for individuals and corporations.
Glenn has a 33-year history of fighting for the cause of limited government and conservative values. As executive director of the Idaho Freedom to Work committee, Glenn drove the successful effort to pass Right to Work legislation in that state in 1986, prohibiting compulsory union membership. As a county commissioner, Glenn 16 years ago authored the first Health Savings Account-based health care plan for county employees anywhere in America and was invited to testify before Congress, where a top Congressional staffer in a news report called him a national “pioneer” in free market healthcare reform.
As president of the American Family Association of Michigan for the last 12 years, Glenn has promoted traditional family values and is one of two co-authors of Michigan’s Marriage Protection Amendment, defining marriage as only between one man and one woman, which was approved by nearly 60 percent of voters in the November 2004 general election.