The Fraud of the Tea Party
By TIMOTHY EGAN
NYT
I see by the calendar that Congress is due back in session Tuesday, whatever that means. They’ve actually been in session — sorta, kinda, why not? — a parliamentary trick to prevent President Obama from naming people to keep the government running. But even that is in dispute.
Thus far, the Worst Congress Ever has done nothing but show that the United States can be a nonfunctioning democracy when it wants to, like Italy but with all-you-can-eat buffets. In a single demi-term, it nearly shut down the government, fouled a fledgling economic recovery with a pointless fight over the debt ceiling, and then threatened to withhold spending money for 160 million working Americans by raising the payroll tax. Brinkmanship is its only game.
Oh, but the House did pass a measure barring the government from encouraging use of energy-efficient light bulbs. “With a President Bachmann, Americans can buy any light bulb they want.” So said Representative Michele Bachmann, until recently a candidate for president and a self-proclaimed leader of the Tea Party. You see how far she got.
It would be easy, using Bachmann and her Republican Party majority in the House as prime exhibits, to see the Tea Party as a collection of buffoons and know-nothings who have now run out of helium. But the movement, largely leaderless, was born out of legitimate frustration over Wall Street bailouts and runaway government spending. People in funny costumes made a lot of noise, and claimed responsibility for handing Republicans control of the House in the 2010 elections.
(More here.)
NYT
I see by the calendar that Congress is due back in session Tuesday, whatever that means. They’ve actually been in session — sorta, kinda, why not? — a parliamentary trick to prevent President Obama from naming people to keep the government running. But even that is in dispute.
Thus far, the Worst Congress Ever has done nothing but show that the United States can be a nonfunctioning democracy when it wants to, like Italy but with all-you-can-eat buffets. In a single demi-term, it nearly shut down the government, fouled a fledgling economic recovery with a pointless fight over the debt ceiling, and then threatened to withhold spending money for 160 million working Americans by raising the payroll tax. Brinkmanship is its only game.
Oh, but the House did pass a measure barring the government from encouraging use of energy-efficient light bulbs. “With a President Bachmann, Americans can buy any light bulb they want.” So said Representative Michele Bachmann, until recently a candidate for president and a self-proclaimed leader of the Tea Party. You see how far she got.
It would be easy, using Bachmann and her Republican Party majority in the House as prime exhibits, to see the Tea Party as a collection of buffoons and know-nothings who have now run out of helium. But the movement, largely leaderless, was born out of legitimate frustration over Wall Street bailouts and runaway government spending. People in funny costumes made a lot of noise, and claimed responsibility for handing Republicans control of the House in the 2010 elections.
(More here.)
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