Reading the Tea Leaves: We’re In for Two Years of Nasty Craziness

Who's pouring this bitter tea?

Last November, American voters started brewing a strong pot of tea. It has finished steeping and officials elected by the Tea Party are starting to pour their brew. Let’s take a quick look at what they are serving up.

• The budget proposed by the Republican-controlled house savages women’s rights, stripping funding from Planned Parenthood and defunding Title X.
• That same budget contains a provision defunding health care reform, sacrificing the elderly, the young, and the poor.
• Just for fun, the budget also slashes all support for public broadcasting. Of course they defeated an amendment that would have ended military funding for NASCAR.
• Republicans in Virginia have launched an aggressive campaign to roll back gay rights in that commonwealth.
• Scott Walker, the TP Governor of Wisconsin is working with the Republican-controlled legislature to crush organizing rights and basic benefits for public employees.
• Florida Governor and Medicare scam criminal Rick Scott has refused federal funding for high-speed rail because it is funded by President Obama’s stimulus program. (That’s okay, Rick, Oregon will gladly take more money for safe, efficient travel.)

While the Tea Party prides itself on being a grass-roots movement (funded by corporate interests), there is a basic set of principles that supporters tend to list as their platform:

• Individual freedoms (from women’s rights, gay rights, efficient transportation, collective bargaining, and non-corporate media)
• Personal responsibility (to pay for congressional health care while losing one’s own)
• Returning political power to the states and the people (power to spend time and money fighting health care in court and crush workers)

Cheers to the Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate, Harry Reid, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and other who are speaking out and taking action against this horrific agenda.

The Tea Partiers press their agenda despite substantial public objection to most of the specifics, not wishing to be troubled with facts. The rest of America should be terrified about what’s coming next.