Huntley Tea Party Hears About 'Generational Theft'

Editor's note: The Huntley Tea Party's guest speaker Tuesday, June 19 was from Turning Point USA.

Miguel Melgar got lots of applause Tuesday night from Huntley Tea Party members as he outlined the idea of “generational theft” and how his generation must take a stand against it.

Paying off the national debt of about $15.7 trillion would require high school graduates to pay upward of $700,000, he said.

“That’s a whole lot of money,” the Buffalo Grove High School graduate said. “Our question is how are we expected to pay for that?”

“Our mission for this group is to make the central focus of the 2012 election about the national debt,” he said. “Stop spending our future away — that’s the message we are trying to tell.”

“Generational theft,” Melgar said, refers to how Washington is saddling the nation’s youth by “spending on the back of future generations.”

Huntley Tea Party invited Turning Point USA members Melgar and Arthur Sak to speak at its monthly meeting Tuesday at the Huntley Park District on Mill Street. Turning Point USA is a nonpartisan group of young adults and teens who are demanding fiscal responsibly from Washington and politicians.

The group developed from a group of teens protesting a price hike for cookies at their high school last fall. The group would meet and ended up discussing lots of topics, including the national debt. Melgar said there was a consensus among liberals, independents and conservatives in the group that the national debt was an issue.

“It is our civic duty to bring in the reins of government, to let them know they do not rule us. They work for us and the only reason they hold power is we voted them in,” Melgar said.

Members of Turning Point USA has been getting national attention with appearances on Fox News in May. Its members have met national political figures like Ron Paul.

Reaching out to their generation requires different tactics, like using social media, he said. Today’s youth are not politically engaged but are hooked on Facebook and other social media.

Melgar put together a photo of President Barack Obama leaning over Vice President Joe Biden with the caption “We have got some big problems Joe. These kids figured out who has to pay for all the debt.” It got hundreds of thousands of likes and reached millions of people, he said.

It also made young adults think about the debt, he said.

“We saw how much growth we had with a single picture," Melgar said. "We saw explosive effects on the Internet. There was a light switch that went on. We recognized the way we can engage the youth is with humor.”

Huntley Tea Party members and their guests applauded Melgar’s statements but wanted to know what Turning Point USA wants to see happen.

Melgar said Turning Point USA has a few goals:

• Make generational theft unconstitutional by passing a balanced budget amendment.
• Hold Congress accountable by passing a “No Budget, No Pay Act.”
• Restructure programs like Social Security to make them solvent for future generations.
• Extend the Bush tax cuts and bring down the national debt.

Turning Point USA hopes to go on a college tour to get young adults to register, vote and endorse their ideas.

“My mission is to make our group the No. 1 threat to Washington and Congress in 2012,” he said. “I want to be able to stand on the floor (of Congress) and address all those thieves and give them a piece of my mind.”