The Tea Party Comes to Town

Dick Morris writes this morning that the newly elected Congress, led by the GOP must stand for “No More Bailouts.” Morris writes that the citizens of states that have kept a lid on their finances are being forced by Congress to subsidize the citizens of states like California and New York where budgets have snowballed into unstoppable avalanches of debt. This is true. Why should citizens of Indiana be forced to pay for California carbon regulators to make it harder for Indianans to export their coal to California? Doesn’t make any sense does it?

This is all about redistribution of wealth. It doesn’t only happen among rich and poor people, it happens among rich and poor states as well. It’s even worse when it happens between states because states are supposed to be led by intelligent people, duly elected by the constituents to represent their best interests. On an individual level there are any number of reasons why a person may be down on their luck. But a state has an entire apparatus of administration, created solely for the purpose of good governance. You would think that might be enough, but apparently not!

Morris places the blame for the states’ current conditions at the feet of the unions. There is probably a certain level of truth to that. Unions are in the business of extracting the best possible contract from an employer, in this case though the employer is their fellow citizenry. However, in states where taxes are extremely high, and regulations force up prices, is it any wonder unions are asking for 4.5% pay increases? The combination of bad policy and union leadership that is paid to get the best contract for their members is creating a stranglehold over many statehouses. That doesn’t mean that Indiana should bail out California. States that are continuously given bailouts will never face the issues they have created. And Indiana can only save California from so much bad governance before it too can’t survive.

But most Americans know all this. It isn’t a secret that some states have driven their finances off a cliff! That’s why the Tea Party has had so much success. Americans are motivated to protect their states from raids by other states. And fix their own states if they are in trouble. But as Ted Abram notes, the establishment is already working to co-opt Tea Party elected senators and congressmen. Americans should be skeptical of any politician who has been in office a long time. That’s not to say they are all bad, but keep you’re eye on them.

Kara Pally at FreedomWorks writes that polling shows Americans believe that the success of the GOP will come from its adherence to the principles laid out by the Tea Party, and especially those in the Contract From America.

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The Chess Match Begins – E.J. Smith

Already the chess match is beginning in the Senate. The establishment is trying to co-opt the Tea Party, the Democrats are looking for their way forward, and newly elected Tea Party senators are getting a face full of parliamentary politics like nothing they have ever encountered. As the politicking continues it is important for senators and their colleagues in the House to remember what they were elected to do. That is, repeal Obamacare, protect the Bush tax cuts and cut government spending. As Deroy Murdock writes today, the American people “gagged on government — gargantuan, profligate, and pugilistic — especially in its domestic quintessence: ObamaCare. Calls to repeal the Democrats’ wheezing contraption grew louder Tuesday.” Those calls are the echoes of the Tea Party mantras that won the GOP the House and destroyed what was left of the Democrats’ super-majority in the Senate. Look for calls to end Obamacare to continue until that dog is put down.