Interesting article about the Tea Party

**Biggin** · February 21st, 2011, 10:32 PM

E.J. Dionne Jr. - The Tea Party is winning

Take five steps back and consider the nature of the political conversation in our nation's capital. You would never know that it's taking place at a moment when unemployment is still at 9 percent, when wages for so many people are stagnating at best and when the United States faces unprecedented challenges to its economic dominance.

No, Washington is acting as if the only real problem the United States confronts is the budget deficit; the only test of leadership is whether the president is willing to make big cuts in programs that protect the elderly; and the largest threat to our prosperity comes from public employees.

Take five more steps back and you realize how successful the Tea Party has been. No matter how much liberals may poke fun at them, Tea Party partisans can claim victory in fundamentally altering the country's dialogue.

Consider all of the problems taking a back seat to the deficit in Washington and the media. You haven't heard much lately on how Wall Street shenanigans tanked the economy in the first place - and in the process made a small number of people very rich. Yet any discussion of the problems caused by concentrated wealth (a vital mainstream issue in the America of Andrew Jackson and both Roosevelts) is confined to the academic or left-wing sidelines.

You haven't seen a lot of news stories describing the impact of long-term unemployment on people's lives or the difficulty working-class kids are encountering if they want to go to college.

You hear a lot about how much the government spends on the elderly but not much about facts such as this one, courtesy of a report last fall from the Employee Benefit Research Institute: People over 75 "were more likely than other age groups - including children under 18 - to live on incomes equal to or less than 200 percent of poverty."
ad_icon

Any analysis of the economic struggles many elderly people endure would get in the way of the "greedy geezer" storyline being spun to justify big cuts in Medicare benefits and Social Security.

Thanks to the Tea Party, we are now told that all our problems will be solved by cutting government programs. Thus the House Republicans' budget bill passed Saturday. They foresee nirvana if we simply reduce our spending on Head Start, Pell grants for college access, teen pregnancy prevention, clean-water programs, K-12 education and a host of other areas.

Does anyone really think that cutting such programs will create jobs or help Americans get ahead? But give the Tea Party guys credit: They have seized the political and media agenda and made budget cutting as fashionable as Justin Bieber was five minutes ago.

More striking is the Tea Party's influence on Washington's political elite, which looks down at the more extreme men and women of the right when they appear on Fox News but ends up carrying their water.

Lori Montgomery reported in The Post last week that a bipartisan group of senators thinks a sensible deficit reduction package would involve lifting the Social Security retirement age to 69 and reforming taxes, purportedly to raise revenue, in a way that would cut the top income tax rate for the wealthy from 35 percent to 29 percent.

Only a body dominated by millionaires could define "shared sacrifice" as telling nurses' aides and coal miners they have to work until age 69 while sharply cutting tax rates on wealthy people. I see why conservative Republicans like this. I honestly don't get why Democrats - "the party of the people," I've heard - would come near such an idea.

The media are full of commentary on President Obama's "failure of leadership." There is some truth to the critique but not in the way the charge is typically made.

Obama is not at fault for his budget proposals. But any fair examination of the news suggests that he is in danger of losing control of the national narrative again, just as he did during the stimulus and health-care battles.

In his State of the Union address, Obama made a good case that budget cutting is too small an agenda and that this is also a time for more government - yes, more government - in areas that would expand opportunities and strengthen the economy. That argument has been entirely drowned out. If politics is reduced to a crabbed and crabby accountants' war, Obama loses. The country will, too.

**pvfan** · February 22nd, 2011, 12:44 AM

The hell with cutting the military or NASA, let's cut education, teen pregnancy prevention, clean water, and college pell grants. It scares me that people in this country are this dumb.

**1inStripes** · February 22nd, 2011, 01:34 AM

Lots of cuts needed to be made. That said, I cannot agree with all that are being made. The military is one thing we should not be cutting IMO. Our military was in terrible shape due to cuts around 2000 (I am not referring to daily spending money caused by the war). NASA is something that I think could justifibly absorb a good cut though.

**pvfan** · February 22nd, 2011, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by 1inStripes

Lots of cuts needed to be made. That said, I cannot agree with all that are being made. The military is one thing we should not be cutting IMO. Our military was in terrible shape due to cuts around 2000 (I am not referring to daily spending money caused by the war). NASA is something that I think could justifibly absorb a good cut though.

If you don't cut the military you are wasting your time cutting anything; we all know the government is not going to mess with social security or other entitlement health care programs.

**1inStripes** · February 22nd, 2011, 01:56 AM

Personally I think our first cuts should be made to foreign aid. I do not want our military to be cut to basic missiles, and being caught with our pants down again. We were attacked and had to go into war that while we took a few months to plan, and prepare for, we were still very short early on in ammunition, and especially armor.

**pvfan** · February 22nd, 2011, 02:02 AM

Foreign aid is a drop in a bucket. There are only three things you can cut to make any headway

Social Security
Medical Entitlement Programs
Military

**pvfan** · February 22nd, 2011, 02:04 AM

Fix the Budget:

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

**1inStripes** · February 22nd, 2011, 02:21 AM

Originally Posted by pvfan

Foreign aid is a drop in a bucket.

It may be a drop in the bucket, but its a painless drop for American citizens. I by no means feel as though its a cure all.

**pvfan** · February 22nd, 2011, 02:45 AM

I'm in the minority on foreign aid but I want as many people in the world thinking we are helping them that I can. Seemingly, everybody hates us, a few bucks to keep some guy from blowing us up is ok by me. There is a reason we have only been attacked on our home soil once in the last 60 years and I feel foreign aid is a part of that.

**TheBeast** · February 22nd, 2011, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by pvfan

I'm in the minority on foreign aid but I want as many people in the world thinking we are helping them that I can. Seemingly, everybody hates us, a few bucks to keep some guy from blowing us up is ok by me. There is a reason we have only been attacked on our home soil once in the last 60 years and I feel foreign aid is a part of that.

I would have to disagree with that. We haven't been attacked on our soil because of our military dominance and anyone with any ideas on doing it knew that the battle would be quickly shifted to their soil and they would have no chance against the strongest military the world has ever seen. I believe giving foreign aid does nothing to help ease any hatred toward us but does more to increase it. They look at it as here are the American's showing the world how much better they are than us and we couldn't survive without them.