Today’s Grassroots Corner comes from Illinois FAIRtax volunteer Dale Dalton, who describes his meeting with Congressman Darin LaHood, representing the Sixteenth Congressional District of Illinois.

The Sixteenth District is west of Chicago and runs from Rockford in the North through Peoria in the South:

Dale writes:
“I want to thank all of you for your support of the meeting with Congressman Darin LaHood (IL-16, R) on Monday, October 30th. It was very helpful to have Mark Pearson at the meeting. I asked Darin what it would take to get HR 25 out of committee. He suggested that someone on the committee needs to champion it. I said to him "that could be you" but he did not take up the challenge. 

“When I asked him who on the Ways and Means Committee would support HR 25, he gave me five names. They are Jason Smith (MO-8, R) chairman, Mike Kelly (PA-16, R) Chairman of the Tax subcommittee, Ron Estes (KS-4, R), Kevin Hern (OK-1, R) and Gregory Stuebe (FL-17, R). Do you have people in the districts of these potentially supportive Congressman on the Ways and Means Committee that would meet with them and urge them to help get HR 25 out of committee?”

As we know, Steve Hayes testified before the Tax Subcommittee shortly later. At that hearing, all but Gregory Stuebe were there since Stuebe is not a member of the Tax Subcommittee. You may recall that Stuebe withdrew his co-sponsorship of the FAIRtax.  If you live in the Seventeenth Congressional District of Florida, you may want to try to get him to reconsider and sign back on.

We thank Darin for taking the initiative to meet with his Member of Congress. Most Members are eager to meet with constituents. An email to the scheduler is usually all it takes to set the meeting up. A constituent who meets with his Congress Member makes a significant impact for the FAIRtax.

Dale continues:
“On Tuesday, November 28th, I will be presenting the Fair Tax Act at the Germantown Hills, IL chapter Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) chapter meeting. Any slides or presentations that you may have on the Fair Tax Act would be very helpful. I will be asking those attending the meeting and people I know to contact Congressman Darin LaHood and ask him to support and sponsor HR 25.”

We hope the meeting went well. Dale's presentation and request for the attendees to meet with Congressman LaHood is "right on the money." The impact proliferates if any attendee takes up Dale on his request. The Congress Member understands that if one constituent takes the time to meet, dozens of constituents must think that way.

Dale continues:

“I talked with Jim Rule, the Tazewell County, IL GOP Committee Chairman about the meeting with Congressman Lahood,  Jim was very supportive of the Fair Tax Act but could not attend the meeting. I may see if I could do a HR 25 presentation at their regular precinct committee person meeting. I also think that I could arrange for someone to speak about the Fair Tax Act at the monthly Peoria County Republican Women's lunch. This luncheon is attended by both men and women. If your organization would like to send someone to speak at any of these events, I would be happy to step aside and let them.”

We salute Dale Dalton. I would love to hear from you if you know someone like Dale.
 

---------------------------------------------------------
CALL FOR PICTURES AND WRITEUPS
We need more of you to send in pictures and news. If you have something to share, please send your material to me, jim.bennett@fairtax.org, (908) 578-4975, or fax (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members, Senators, and even the President start to listen.