A LITTLE TEA TO GO WITH THAT CHECK?

The tea party's last supper
By Kelvin Wade
December 10, 2010

With President Obama and the Democrats' capitulation to Republicans on taxes, where did the deficit hawks go? Where are the tea partiers? Where are the Solano County Tea Party Patriots? And where are they nationally? The government is preparing to spend billions.

The tax framework the White House and Republicans have proposed will offer tax cuts to everyone, including millionaires and billionaires. It extends unemployment 13 months and the Earned Income Tax Credit, as well as makes other tax changes for individuals and business. It provides a generous inheritance tax. There's also a reduction in payroll taxes so Americans will take home more in their paychecks.

Total price tag? About $900 billion over two years according to Moneywatch's Jill Schlesinger. That's larger than the bank bailouts and auto company bailouts combined. It's larger than the $787 billion stimulus bill (which was one-third tax cuts) that sent thousands of tea party members into the streets protesting government spending.

Where are there now? Are they gathering on the national mall with pitchforks and torches? Are they putting on their powdered wigs and writing misspelled, hateful signs to wave in anger and protest? Is Sarah Palin tweeting and Facebooking about this irresponsible expenditure? Did Rush Limbaugh's head explode yet?

I know local tea partiers and I've been rather surprised at their silence.

Understandably, progressives are upset. To them this is just another indication that President Obama's been studying the Neville Chamberlain Negotiation Playbook. But it's all the Democrats who caved on this because the issue should've been brought up and fought before the midterms. The Democrats' Achilles heel has always been spinelessness and the Republicans' has been hubris. Everyone's playing their role to the detriment of the republic.

But what about the tea partiers? They were the ones concerned with runaway deficit spending. For two years they've preached that we shouldn't leave massive debt to our grandchildren. The tea partiers were foursquare against the stimulus package. So how do they sit quietly while we tack even more onto the debt? Where are the cries for austerity? Fiscal responsibility, anyone? Hello?

The tea party has revealed itself to be what progressives thought: an anti-Obama, right-wing Republican gang more concerned with party dogma than country, masquerading as concerned grassroots Americans of every political stripe.

Who are we fooling? We're not serious about deficit and debt reduction. We're still 'last suppering.' Last suppering is that phenomena when you plan on starting a diet on Monday so you eat like a cow over the weekend. We're pigging out on tax cuts one last time.

Are we going to get serious two years from now? Who believes that? What evidence do we have that tells us feckless Republicans won't hold a gun to the head of the poor, middle class and unemployed again? And what assurances do we have that President Obama won't bow to Republican demands?

One things' for sure, the street theater that was the tea party movement will be no more. There's no more reason for them to pretend to care about deficits and fiscal responsibility. Obviously it was never about those things anyway. Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: How in the world can the Tea Party and it's hanger-ons complain for two years about the deficit, out of control spending and leaving debt to our grandchildren and then be silent in the face of a $900 BILLION spending plan? This is more expensive than the stimulus bill and no one's taking to the streets. What's up with that?

Make no mistake, I want to continue riding the gravy train. Who doesn't? Times are tight and every break we can get, we're going to take.

But it's just odd that Democrats and economists have been saying that in a recession where the public isn't spending and business won't spend (because why would you expand your business or hire if people aren't buying?) the only entity left to pump money into the economy is the government. And Republicans and Tea Partiers have been saying STOP the spending!!!!

So here's a $900 billion spending plan. Make no mistake. Tax cuts is spending. So now we have conservatives saying the economy is too fragile to not allow these tax breaks, thus making the same point Democrats have been making: the government has to spend to get us out of this recession. The public has to have the money to spend.

But it really exposes the Tea Party for what it is. Their problem isn't big spending. They proved that by their silence when George W. Bush and a GOP Congress went on their spending spree. Their problem is Democrats spending.