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Politics & Government

South Bay Tea Party Leader Focuses on Spending

The group, which is holding a convention Sunday in Redondo Beach, works to reduce the federal debt, says co-founder Christine Vinquist.

Christine Vinquist, co-founder of the South Bay Tea Party, believes in grassroots efforts and fiscal responsibility. A 27-year-old aerospace engineer from Westchester, she's worked on campaigns for Arizona Sen. John McCain, L.A. mayoral candidate Walter Moore and Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. Vinquist expects about 500 people to attend the tea party's convention in Redondo Beach on Sunday. Patch talked with her about her party's priorities. 

Manhattan Beach Patch: How did you hear about the tea party?

Christine Vinquist: Well, there was Rick Santelli in 2009 who was on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and went all bonkers, which went viral. Then my friend who also works at Raytheon, Nathan Mintz, and is running for state assembly, I don't know how he got me involved. He was like, "I'm starting this tea party thing. You want to come and join me?" I was like, "Sure, OK, sounds awesome." And we kind of just went from there.

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Patch: What's the most pressing problem the U.S. faces? 

Vinquist: The biggest issue I would say is the debt. It's definitely a huge fiscal crisis. At $13 trillion and growing by billions every day. It really is generational theft. We're never going to pay it off in my generation, or my children's, or my grandchildren's. And we just keep spending more. And I know they say it's for our benefit, but Keynesian economics is not going to work in this instance because the other side of Keynesian economics is that in times of good you save so in times of bad you can spend your savings. Well, we've never saved. We just have more debt and more debt.

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Patch: What should the country do to fix the debt problem? 

Vinquist: Stopping the out-of-control spending would be good. A lot of people think that we just want to cut all the funding for poor people and let them die in the streets. It's so not true. It's about targeted cuts. And a lot of it has to do with cutting back on the size of the federal government, putting more in the hands of the state government.

The federal government can't do everything. It's a huge bureaucracy. California is different from North Dakota, is different from Mississippi, and is different from Maine. So when you try and create these huge blanket issues to cover every aspect, well, now you have these huge massive federal bureaucracies that are created.

Patch: Some people say the tea party is just for Republicans. What do you say to them?

Vinquist: I would say come to our meetings and visit the Democrats and independents that show up. We don't really talk in terms of Republican or Democrat. We talk in terms of our viewpoints. We're fiscally conservative and about personal responsibility, that kind of information. So come talk to us before you label us. That's usually a wise stance.

Patch: Every president since World War II has increased the size of the federal government. Can that change?

Vinquist: I would like to think it could. The problem is when you start to grow government, someone becomes dependent on it, and it's always hard to try and take something back from someone. It's like taking a toy away from a child. They're going to scream about it, but sometimes it's for their betterment. It would have to be a really, really hard decision, and it would have to be very strategic, and it would probably take a long time to do it because the size of the federal government has just gotten so out of control.

Patch: Where do tea party members generally stand on fiscal conservatism versus social conservatism?

Vinquist: Tea Party members are on both sides of the aisle, actually. I am a fiscal conservative. I am not a social conservative. But we do have a lot of members who are socially conservative. But the way I like to state it is that if your country is bankrupt, the social issues aren't going to matter as much. If you can't pay your mortgage and feed your family, and have your children go to school and give them clothes, it's really not going to matter where the social issues lie, because that's going to be at the bottom of your list besides eating and surviving.

Patch: Is the tea party the third party growing in America?

Vinquist: I don't think it is. To me, it's just informed citizens who are fighting back against the system that has failed them. We're not attacking the system directly, because if you do that, if you attack the Democrats and Republicans, they're going to both fight you together because they want to preserve their own battle with each other, not against someone else.

That's why the third party system isn't working. The two dominant parties are too powerful.

To me, it's about local issues. There's no national tea party. There are no state tea parties. There's local tea parties based on the issues for that local community because that's what affects people on a daily basis and that's what should be focused on.

Patch: Like what local issues?

Vinquist: One of the biggest is clawback from the state. Imagine trying to balance your personal budget every month and your employer decides they want to take back some of your paycheck? This is what Sacramento does. If there's a fiscal emergency, which seems to be all the time in Sacramento, they can just take more from the cities. That's why Prop 22 is important in November. It would prevent the state from taking money from local transportation and transit funds. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

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