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Does The Tea Party Know What Their Message Is?

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on March 31, 2011.

03-31-2011 by L. S. Carbonell

Bachmann at 2010 Tea Party Express rally

On MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews today, substitute host Chuck Todd interviewed Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots about the budget fight currently playing out in Congress – the one where Congress has to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government before April 8 or there will be a partial shut down, not the one about next year’s budget. Both Martin and Meckler stressed that all the Tea Partiers want is a cut of 2.6 cents of every dollar in the Federal budget. If that were the truth, the budget fight would be long over.

It’s not the numbers that are at issue – it’s the reverse earmarks. If all that were being discussed were a simple across-the-board cut of 2.6%, that could be done without serious damage to programs or people. But, and it’s a huge but, the Republicans are demanding that Defense Department spending be increased by 1% while keeping things that Secretary Gates wants cut. That ups the cuts to 3.6% of the remaining budget. Then, they can’t touch the entitlements dear to the hearts of the demographically older Tea Partiers, so no cuts to Social Security or Medicare. That shifts the burden of the cuts to a small portion of the Federal budget. The reverse earmarks – specifying cuts instead of specifying spending – which have been put into the budget bill as “riders” demand the de-funding of certain programs and crippling cuts to others. The targets have either been chosen for their reactionary social issues value (Planned Parenthood) or their political value (NPR) or the way they pander to the right-wing narrative of a nation of tit-sucking leeches (WIC). This is the issue, not the percentage of cuts.

Apparently neither Martin nor Meckler were at the Continuing Revolution Rally in Washington Thursday listening to Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann vowing that de-funding Planned Parenthood is not negotiable. There were an estimated 300 people at the rally, and a third of them were from the media. That didn’t stop Meckler from using that favorite phrase of Republicans “The American People….” He also could not hear the contradiction in saying that he doesn’t pay attention to single polls when one says that independent voters disapprove of the Tea Party by a 48-31 split, then quoting a poll that said that 69% of Americans support the goals of the Tea Party. Um, sorry, Martin actually spoke at the rally. My bad.

The goals, yes. Most of us are behind the idea of cutting the deficit and making government more efficient. Hell, we’ve been behind that idea since Jimmy Carter promised to streamline government before Ronald Reagan doubled our national debt. We were behind that goal 100% when Bill Clinton charged Al Gore with making the government less paper-dependent and ended his term with a surplus. More efficient government and eliminating waste in government is an honorable goal. Using the budget to score political points with anti-abortionists and welfare-haters is not.

Jenny Beth Martin was bragging about how the Tea Party is growing, citing various places where tea party movements are gaining membership. The exchange with Chuck Todd shows why they can be gaining members locally and losing ground nationally.

The loudest message spread by the Tea Party is the one about fiscal responsibility and efficient government. What we have seen in the states where the Republicans have gained control is the real hidden messages behind that Koch-purchased bus tour – castrate the Democratic Party, destroy unions, give more tax breaks to the rich and impose a theocratically-driven social agenda. True Tea Party believers like Martin and Meckler aren’t hearing the backlash. They are denying the repercussions of having the hidden agenda exposed. They still believe (or they are damned good actors) that they represent a grassroots movement against our blooming national debt.

Most of all, they are stuffing cotton in their ears and refusing to hear two vitally important pieces of information. 1. Our current situation in the budgets of our state and federal governments is a result of the recession. When people don’t have jobs, they can’t pay taxes and they can’t make purchases which are taxed. Everyone loses revenue, causing budget deficits. 2. President Obama really does know what he’s talking about. Historically, we have taxed and grown our way out of depressions, recessions and national debts. If we can’t invest in our nation’s future, we don’t have a future. If we don’t educate our children, they have no future.

On The Last Word with Lawrenece O’Donnell, Illinois Rep. Walsh kept insisting that the Senate Democrats are not negotiating and that the President is not engaged – proven by the fact that he sent VP Biden to handle the negotiations while the President went on a major trade mission to South America. Tea Party members need to change the channel. All they are hearing is the outright lies spewed out by people like Walsh and repeated on Fox News. One cannot debate from a position of ignorance and entrenchment.

Maybe it’s time for the grassroots Tea Partiers to take a look at just who’s paying for their movement, who’s hijacking their movement and what message they really want Congress to hear. Then they should try learning a little economic history. They let themselves get sucked in to the wrong party. It’s the Democrats who have historically solved our budget and debt problems, while the Republicans just drove us off a series of cliffs.