Tea Party Seeks Reutrn to Colonial Days

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright September 14, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

           Exerting overwhelming influence over the Sept. 12 Republican debate in Tampa, Florida, pitting Texas Gov. Rick Perry against former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, the Tea Party now calls the shots since Perry entered the race Aug. 13, watching Romney’s fortunes head south.  Today’s GOP base seems infatuated with the Tea Party, a series of loosely guided principles based largely on the rhetoric of the late President Ronald Reagan, the GOP’s favorite icon.  Reagan famously said:  “The government is too big and spends too much,” something he said repeatedly during his 1980 campaign against incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter.  With the economy in shambles, Carter had no answer for Reagan’s feisty rhetoric.  “We don’t have inflation because the people are living too well, we have inflation because the government is living too well,” the Tea Party’s favorite mantra. 

            When you really ask what the Tea Party wants, it’s nothing short of Reagan’s promise to “curb the size and influence of the federal establishment.”  Tea Party folks led now in the GOP primaries by Perry and Bachmann echo Reagan’s broad themes of scaling back the federal government and returning power to the states.  If you carry the Tea Party’s message to the “nth” degree, it means to the end of federal government programs like Medicare, Social Security, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, subsidized National Parks and other federal programs deemed extravagant and superfluous.  Ending federal subsidies to farms, natural disasters, the border patrol, aviation security, the war on drugs or other programs mean the states now become responsible to administer and pay for programs previously paid for out of the common tax base or U.S. Treasury.

            Think about it.  If Tea Party gets its way, there won’t be a U.S. Treasury.  Apart from the current high unemployment rates, marginal tax rates are the lowest in modern history, no longer generating enough revenue to sustain the federal government.  Of the 100 U.S. senators, 435 House members and countless other federal agencies, cutting back the federal establishment would create the largest wave of unemployment in U.S. history and sink the national economy into another Great Depression.  Tea Party folks rant about the federal government but many of them work for the federal establishment and derive health, welfare and pension benefits.  If the Tea Party gets its way and elects one of their own, they plan the largest cut to the federal budget in U.S. history, potentially throwing millions more into unemployment.  Today’s federal government is the nation’s largest employer.

            In Monday’s Tampa debate, CNN’s moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), what he would do [as a physician] with a hypothetical of a 30-year-old man that needed months of intensive care but had no health insurance.  “[And] he needs intensive care for six months.  Who pays?” asked Blitzer.  “That’s what freedom is all about,” Paul responded.  “Taking your own risks.”  “But congressman, are you say that society should jus let him die,” asked Wolf.  Of the many issues serving as a rallying cry for the Tea Party, none is more passionate than reversing President Barack Obama’s health care reform program.  Tea Party folks don’t want the government paying for health care for the working adult population.  They object to paying for Medicare for seniors or the disabled or for health care for the poor with Medicaid.  If they pull the health safety net, it would create a national disaster.

            Most economists, including Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, believe the today’s whopping budget deficits hurt economic growth.  If the Tea Party gets its way and slashes the size of the federal government, budget deficits would soar to record levels.  No world economy functions only on private sector unemployment.  Growth rates in countries with high government employment have lower budget deficits.  Today’s U.S. budget deficits relate more to high levels of unemployment robbing the treasury of needed tax dollars.  Working with the Treasury Dept., the Fed must determine the appropriate tax rates for maximum economic growth.  Reagan’s past economy worked when appropriate tax rates ruled the economy.  Bush’s tax cuts are due expire in 2012.  When they expire, it should act like a shot of adrenalin to the U.S. economy, reducing today’s big deficits.

            Hoping to slash the size of the federal establishment, the GOP-backed Tea Party is ready to return to Colonial times before the federal government.  Contrary to Tea Party beliefs, today’s low tax rates have harmed the government by adding to whopping budget deficits.  When Bush’s tax cuts expire next year, the government will get more operating capital with which to finance important federal programs.  Returning to Colonial times would put decisions about abortion, gay marriage, civil rights, etc. into the hands of local inhabitants, known at times for unacceptable prejudice and discrimination.  When California passed Nov. 5, 2008 by initiative a ban on gay marriage, the majority’s voice violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal rights protection under the 14th amendment.  Scaling back the federal establishment would reverse 200-plus years of hard-fought civil and social rights now taken for granted.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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