FreedomWorks to Host All-Day Grassroots Training and Tea Party Debt Commission Field Hearing in South Carolina

WHAT: FreedomWorks and local Tea Party groups will host a full day of activist education and grassroots training this Saturday, October 15th, at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in South Carolina.

Speakers and panel experts will address a variety of state and national issues, and offer a free-market perspective on topics including energy policy, government spending and school choice. In addition, attendees will participate in an interactive 2012 strategy session, a live demonstration of the online organizing platform FreedomConnector and a field hearing of the Tea Party Debt Commission (TPDC).

The Tea Party Debt Commission consists of twelve members, paralleling the structure of the new “super-committee” created by Congress as part of the recent debt ceiling compromise. Committee members are volunteer tea party activists from a variety of states across the country, including CO, CT, IN, NH, NV, NY, OH, PA, UT, and VA.

WHEN: Saturday, October 15, 2011 from 9:00am-6:00pm ET.  The TPDC field hearing will be held at 3:30pm ET. Agenda available upon request.

WHERE: Richmond Room/Lexington Room- Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, 1101 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC 29201.

WHY: As a service center to over 1.4 million activists across the country, FreedomWorks seeks to unite and empower activists nationwide to create their own grassroots army of fiscal conservatives that can win elections and transform tea party ideals into lasting political change.

FreedomWorks has a long history of working with limited-government activists in South Carolina, and will continue to coordinate with activists in this battleground state in the months leading up to the 2012 elections.

The Tea Party Debt Commission’s goal is to provide a platform for citizens around the country to be heard, and to propose specific cuts to the federal budget. It aims to create a budget plan that balances the federal budget within 10 years; reduces federal spending to 18 percent of GDP; reduces the national debt to no more than 66 percent of GDP; reduces federal spending by at least $9 trillion over 10 years (including $300 billion in the first year); and does not raise taxes.

The Tea Party Debt Commission began its grassroots outreach with email submissions and an online crowd-sourcing tool allowing voters to prioritize spending cuts. Each vote cuts a program, and projects the one-year and 10-year savings that cut would generate.