Why D.C.'s Deficit Spending Matters & What To
Do About It

Our national debt equals 20 trillion dollars - over $59,000 for every single person in America - and annual interest now costs more than the federal government spends on transportation, agriculture, science, education, housing, and international affairs.

So what? Reckless spending jeopardizes not just other budget priorities and puts our children on the hook, but is driving our nation toward a cliff that Greece, Puerto Rico, and other big-spending governments already face.

Are there solutions? Is there something you can do? Find out by attending this town hall meeting with national and regional experts who are raising the alarm and proposing solutions! You are invited to attend this public town hall meeting on Monday, April 18th from 6:00 - 8:00pm at the Palazzo Grande Banquet Center on Van Dyke Avenue just south of 25 Mile Road in Shelby Township.

You will have an opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, and learn more about this issue. The event is free, light refreshments will be served. To attend, register here:

The distinguished panel:

Grover Norquist, Founder & National President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). ATR works to limit the size and cost of government and opposes higher taxes at the federal, state, and local levels and supports tax reform that moves towards taxing consumed income one time at one rate.

ATR organizes the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which asks all candidates for federal and state office to commit themselves in writing to the American people to oppose all net tax increases. In the 114th Congress, 219 House members and 49 Senators have taken the pledge. On the state level, 14 governors and over 1,000 state legislators have taken the pledge.

Norquist chairs the Washington, DC - based Wednesday Meeting, a weekly gathering of more than 150 elected officials, political activists, and movement leaders. The meeting started in 1993 and takes place in ATR's conference room. There are now 60 similar center-right meetings in 48 states.

Paul Mitchell, former Chairman of the Michigan Faith & Freedom Coalition and the 'Coalition Against Higher Taxes and Special Interest Deals'created to defeat last year's ballot initiative to raise Michigan's sales tax. Mitchell led and funded the grassroots effort to fight Proposal 1 that resulted in voters rejecting the tax hike by over 80%voting NO despite being outspent by over 40 to 1. Mr. Mitchell is the former CEO of the Ross Medical Education Center based in St. Clair and a candidate for congress.

Charles N. Steele is Associate Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College, where he holdsthe Herman and Suzanne Dettwiler Chair in Economics. He also works as an economic consultant with Hillsdale Policy Group, and is a policy advisor for Heartland Institute. His research interests include resource and energy economics, health care economics, economics of institutional change and transition, and economics of uncertainty and information.

Nick Dranias, President of the Compact For America Educational Foundation, which seeks to add a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution. As a constitutionl attorney, Mr. Dranias previously worked with the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, the Institute for Justice, and the Heartland Institute.

Compensation for Michigan's private sector citizens decreased by 10.3% between 2007 and the third quarter of 2009 - the most recent data available from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Most Michiganders are earning less and struggling to get by.

But one group is actually becoming richer in Michigan: government employees. State and local government employee compensation increased by 5.5% during the same period, and federal employee compensation is up by 7.5%.

And the good times will keep rolling for state government bureaucrats who are scheduled to receive a nice 3% pay increase this year unless two-thirds of state lawmakers vote to halt the pay hike.

Who pays for generous government employee pay increases in these tough times? Remember that Governor Granholm and state lawmakers hiked the state income tax by 12% and the state business tax by 22% back in 2007? Those tax hikes meant more money out of your shrinking paycheck and into the fatter paychecks of Michigan's government class.

The Taxpayer Minutemen Project

During the American Revolutionary War, Minutemen volunteered to organize quickly in defense of fellow citizens who faced oppression from the British government. They pledged to respond “at a minute's warning” to threats against fellow citizens during the war. Minuteman Paul Revere spread the news that "the Redcoats are coming!" when the British marched to subjugate the towns of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775.

We need YOU to be a Taxpayer Minuteman!

Taxpayer Minutemen are citizens who care about protecting fellow taxpayers from ever-growing, expensive and fiscally abusive government.

Just complaining about increasing taxes and wasteful government spending won’t get anyone in the government to listen to us. Politicians only care about the demands of organized interest groups who can threaten their chances at reelection.

Minutemen are organized to fight back against tax hiking politicians – quickly and effectively!