July 2009 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Welcome to our first e-newsletter! Once a month, we’ll send you an update from our members.  We’ve had a busy summer, redesigning a new website, and building up a grassroots membership.  Our mission is to promote the ideas of efficient government, lower taxes, a strong national defense, and traditional family values.  We also work to promote a positive image of Indian Americans and present India in a positive light.  Please check out our new website and visit our information center, where you can learn more about Indian Americans, some interesting facts about India, the nine major religions of India, and the history of the conservative movement.

The Attorney General of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, will be shaking hands at the Sixth Annual Asia Festival in Reston, Virginia on Saturday, August 1. This year’s festival showcases India and runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, August 1 and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 2. The address is: Lake Newport Tennis Facility, 11452 Baron Cameron Avenue, Reston, VA.  More than 25 Asian restaurants will have booths serving food from all over Asia, including Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese delicacies. The event is sponsored by the Thai Tennis Organization in America, the Reston Association and Singha Beer, to promote awareness of Asian culture and to increase participation in the sport of tennis. There will also be Bollywood and Bhangra dancing!

Suhail Khan, who sits on our board and the board of the American Conservative Union, hosted a reception on Capitol Hill as head of the Inclusion Coalition.  This is a diverse group of individuals and organizations that seek to broaden the reach of our movement into new communities.  Members of leading Indian American, Iranian American, African American, Jewish, Muslim, and Hispanic organizations all attended.  The following Republican Members of Congress took time out of their very busy schedules to join nearly 75 people in the Capitol Visitor Center: U.S. Rep. Tom Price (GA), U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (CA), U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (NC), U.S. Rep. Wally Herger (CA), U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao (LA), U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (TX), U.S. Rep. Henry Brown (SC), U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (SC), U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (VA), and U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO).

Dr. Sambhu Banik, an original member of our Board of Directors, helped sponsor a movie premiere of Piyalir Password, the first Bengali movie shot entirely in the U.S. IARC member Songeeta Guha, an expert tabla player, was invited to perform at the State Department by the South Asian-American Employee Association (SAAEA) to help State Department employees learn more about South Asian culture.  Harry Walia, a member of our Board of Directors, announced he is running for Venice City Council in Florida.  You can learn more about Harry by visiting his website.

IARC members were invited to a bipartisan Capitol Hill reception welcoming the Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of India, Ambassador Arun K. Singh and his wife Dr. Maina Singh.  The following Republican Members of Congress attended: U.S. Rep. Joseph Cao, U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (CA), U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett (SC), U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC), U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ), and U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.  IARC members Dr. Banik, Songeeta Guha, Paul Mathew, Gita Uppal, Amit Saluja,  Kishan Putta and Nina Verghese all attended a Senate India Caucus reception welcoming India’s Ambassador to the U.S., the Honorable Meera Shankar.  Narender Reddy, the Chairman of IARC-Georgia, and Ashok Mago, a founder of IARC-Texas also attended.  The following Republican Senators attended the reception: U.S. Senator George Voinovich (OH), U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (MS), U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), U.S. Senator Kit Bond (MO), and U.S. Senator John Cornyn (TX), co-founder and co-chair of the Caucus.

Governor Bobby Jindal has launched a 64 Parish tour of Louisiana, visiting constituents around Louisiana as he continues to lead the state forward during tough economic times.  He wrote an op-ed in the Politico focusing on the out-of-control spending in Washington.  He also made several nationally televised appearances discussing the need for fiscal restraint and for patient-centered health care reform.

Annual membership is only $25, and you will receive an IARC lapel pin and welcome letter, along with discounted rates for exclusive events we host.  Members are also invited to join a monthly strategy call that features analysis from guest speakers and grassroots reports from around the country.  You don’t have to be Indian American to join either! You just have to share our values of limited, more efficient government, lower taxes, personal liberty, a strong national defense, and traditional family values.    Please join the IARC today!

“I’ve had people come to us and complain, “Well, if you do that, I can’t make any money.”  The answer is that’s not my job.  We’re not here to help you make money.”
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services

State tax revenues dropped nearly 12% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to 2008, the largest decline in nearly 50 years.  In the first quarter of 2009, federal tax revenues declined by 30% when compared to the year before.

Please join the Indian American Republican Council here.

Creating Jobs

Job creation is what’s on the minds of everyone right now.

Having established a reputation for hard work, ingenuity, and self-discipline, the Indian American community is among the most prosperous communities in the nation. This highly educated cadre of professionals and workers have contributed to all areas of the American economy.

In addition, Indian Americans have developed a rich tradition of entrepreneurship, from small corner grocery markets to giant software corporations. IARC is committed to ensuring that Indian Americans have the resources they need to flourish in their professions, operate successful businesses, and achieve their version of the American Dream.

Specifically, the IARC supports:

• Tax reforms to promote economic growth and reduce the tax burden on all levels of personal income
• Voluntary personal retirement accounts to allow individuals to self-invest a part of their social security contributions
• Medical liability reform to make the system more fair and predictable
• Streamlined regulations and incentives for small business owners to invest in technology, machinery, and other equipment to help them expand and create jobs
• Continued federal funding for information technology, telecommunications, biomedicine, and university-funded research and development
• Free trade policies that provide business opportunities and give consumers the most economical choices

What We Believe

So what do we believe as conservative Indian Americans?

In short, we believe in efficient government, lower taxes, personal  liberty, religious freedom, strong national defense, and traditional  family values.

And if you’re looking for a few more details…

<h2>Promoting prosperity and economic opportunity</h2>
Having established a reputation for hard work, ingenuity, and self-discipline, the Indian American community is among the most prosperous communities in the nation. This highly educated cadre of professionals and workers have contributed to all areas of the American economy. Additionally, Indian Americans have developed a rich tradition of entrepreneurship, from small corner grocery markets to giant software corporations. The IARC is committed to ensuring that Indian Americans have the resources they need to flourish in their professions, operate successful businesses, and achieve their version of the American Dream. Specifically, the IARC supports:
<ul>
<li>Tax reforms to promote economic growth and reduce the tax burden on all levels of personal income</li>
<li>Voluntary personal retirement accounts to allow individuals to self-invest a part of their social security    contributions</li>
<li>Medical liability reform to make the health care system more fair and predictable</li>
<li>Streamlined regulations and incentives for small business owners to invest in technology, machinery, and other equipment to help them expand and create jobs</li>
<li>Increased depreciation expensing for machinery and equipment purchases</li>
<li>Continued federal funding for information technology, telecommunications, biomedicine, and university-funded research and development</li>
<li>Free and fair trade policies that provide business opportunities and give consumers the most economical choices</li>
</ul>
<h2>Protecting family values and enhancing educational opportunities</h2>
Many Indian Americans find it challenging to preserve a culture deeply rooted in family, tradition, religion, and education. Although recognizing that government’s role in this area is limited, the IARC is committed to helping sustain and strengthen these values. Specifically, the IARC supports:
<ul>
<li>Helping families with children by increasing the child tax credit</li>
<li>Raising academic standards and implementing other reforms to improve quality and accountability in America’s public schools</li>
<li>Helping married couples by eliminating the marriage tax penalty</li>
<li>Making college education more affordable by expanding tax deductibility for tuition payments</li>
<li>Encouraging the American television and movie industry to produce more family-oriented, high-quality entertainment options</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong> </strong>Ensuring a fair legal immigration system</h2>
The United States was founded as a nation of immigrants. The Statue of Liberty has stood as a symbol of liberty for our nation’s immigrants for more than a century. America has embraced newcomers from India and other nations into a welcoming society in which we all have a place to live in freedom and provide a better future for our families. While tighter controls on illegal immigration are absolutely necessary, the IARC is committed to ensuring that our current well-established legal immigration system remains intact. Specifically, the IARC supports:
<ul>
<li>Maintaining the family and employment-based immigration categories</li>
<li>Clearing the immigration-waiting list backlogs, particularly for family-based reunification and employer-based Green Cards</li>
<li>Maintaining the H-1B visa program</li>
<li>Speeding up the processing of green card &amp; naturalization paperwork</li>
<li>Revising procedures at U.S. consulates overseas to ensure that visitor and student visas are issued in a fair and predictable manner</li>
<li>Ensuring that legal immigrants are treated fairly by immigration personnel</li>
</ul>
<h2>Protecting our national security and promoting democracy</h2>
Since September 11th, the world and America’s place in it has changed. Protecting our nation from the possibility of another terrorist attack is of paramount importance, and the United States must be proactive in preventing such attacks. At the same time, with its long tradition in support of freedom, democracy, and human rights, America must continue to exercise leadership in support of these national values. Specifically, the IARC supports:
<ul>
<li>Proactive U.S. policies to prevent future terrorist attacks</li>
<li>Increased cooperation between the United States and other nations committed to freedom, including India, the world’s largest democracy</li>
<li>Consistent and active U.S. leadership to promote freedom and democracy in nations ruled by dictators and tyrants and those nations that harbor terrorist organizations</li>
</ul>
<h2>Coalitions</h2>
As a conservative organization, the IARC is committed to the principles of conservative governance. We want to join like-minded organizations that fight daily for our rights as Americans for better, more efficient government, less taxes, tort reform, legal immigration reform and preserving traditional family values.

The IARC actively seeks to build coalitions with other conservative groups. Please contact us if you are interested in partnering with the IARC to promote conservatism in public policy matters.

Nikki Haley featured in Politico

Hey everyone –

We thought you would be interested in this piece that ran in Politico on South Carolina gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley:

Nikki Haley

Gov. Mark Sanford isn’t the only fascinating political story in South Carolina these days. There’s another pol on the Columbia scene who might also find herself in the national spotlight, albeit under very different circumstances.

Her name is Nikki Haley. A 37-year-old state legislator who is running for governor in 2010, Haley is often compared to another fast-rising Republican star: fellow Indian-American Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana.

The daughter of two immigrants, Haley knocked off South Carolina’s then-longest-serving incumbent to become the first Indian-American Republican elected to a state Legislature. After that upset victory, she again caught the attention of the state’s political establishment last summer by successfully moving to limit voice votes and force state lawmakers to vote on the record, an unpopular move with many of her state House colleagues.

Her socially and fiscally conservative credentials are burnished with strong ratings from the National Rifle Association and the state chapter of the Club for Growth and by her role earlier this year as one of Sanford’s lone legislative allies in trying to reject some federal stimulus funds.

“This stimulus has done nothing more than create additional expenses with no way to pay for them,” Haley told POLITICO. “All it did was mandate new programs.”

“It was unfortunate the way it played out in the state,” she said of the long political battle that ended with Sanford accepting the funds. “Republicans need to go back to what we originally believed in, which is less taxes and being accountable to the people.”

Prior to the embattled governor’s admission of an affair with an Argentine woman, Sanford was one of Haley’s top backers — and was expected to be an asset. He told POLITICO prior to his scandal that Haley “has consistently stood up for taxpayers on a whole host of different issues, and she has stood up for transparency in showing how South Carolina really works.”

Now, however, Haley must negotiate her way through a tough primary battle without the incumbent governor at her side.

Rep. J. Gresham Barrett, state Sen. Larry Grooms and Furman University political scientist Brent Nelsen have all announced bids for the Republican nomination. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and Attorney General Henry McMaster are also hinting at runs.

Haley, a mother of two who is married to a technician for the South Carolina National Guard, will face an uphill battle in fundraising and name identification. If Bauer and McMaster jump into the race, some state political insiders give Haley a less-than-even chance of winning the primary.

Yet even if Haley can’t capture the GOP nomination, she has managed to catch the eye of her national party, which is desperately looking for fresh faces. She said she is “surprised” by the attention her candidacy has attracted, but she warned that the party’s future relies on issues, not personalities.

“It’s not just about fresh faces,” she said. “It’s about making sure we hold those fresh faces in government accountable.”

— Andy Barr