These Tea Party freshmen, as they’ve become known—derided as “terrorists” by Vice President Joe Biden and “bizarro” by their own Republican Party icons like John McCain—showed no remorse about bringing the nation to the brink of financial Armageddon.
Instead, they calmly traded stories about families and what brought them to politics, poked fun at their accusers, and reveled in the satisfaction of knowing they had dramatically brought Washington to its knees—eventually to accept a deal, bitter to both parties, that slices $2.4 trillion from federal spending over the next decade without any immediate tax hikes.
This ragtag band of proud obstructionists is already looking down the calendar to its next targets: blocking President Obama’s judicial and federal-agency nominations, radically restructuring Medicare and other entitlement programs, and maybe even killing the gasoline tax.
<SNIP>
Jawboned into spending concessions they could never have imagined weeks ago, the White House and Democrats are no longer underestimating the GOP’s Tea Party wing and plan to mount a relentless campaign this fall to pillory the group as extremist and hypocritical.
<SNIP>
To the intended targets of these attacks, it may not matter. If there is one thing clear from the Tea Party caucus’ first triumph, it is that its members don’t adhere to Washington convention or care about public sentiment. The greater the criticism, the more they stiffen. Their singular focus is collapsing the size of government, at any cost.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/07/tea-party-s-next-targets-blocking-judicial-appointees-killing-gas-tax.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(389 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
