Steve, didn't you caucus with the Paulites in Washington state? Didn't you report they were, well, a little beyond quirky? I may be misremembering.
I tend to mock the Tea Party, of course, but mostly I think it's like Gertrude Stein said about Oakland - there's no there there. It was always presented as a populist uprising, but my impression is that all the official groups bearing the name are headed by old retread hard core conservatives like Dick Armey. I'm sure there are people genuinely worried about the deficit out there, like you are. Given the generally elderly skewage of the broader "Tea Party" base, though, it's hard to take the overall deficit hawkage of the group too seriously. I guess they'd be happy enough with the Ryan plan to fix Medicare by voucherizing it in 10 years for people 55 and under now, but real here and now cuts? Real pushback against the Republican tendency to include Defense under the budget axe? I know the Paulites want to cut defense, but they ain't getting a lot of respect from the national party.
For true deficit hawks, there's always the dreaded fiscal cliff, which would actually do wonders for the deficit if it didn't totally crash the economy. Still, I could accept that risk a lot more easily than some Ryan derivative that upholds the Republican prime directive of tax cuts for rich people first and foremost. |
