my connection with the tea party

[Lissa]

Even the basis of the Tea Party's fiscal argument makes a lot of sense. The core issues are stable, the fringe members/ideas not so much, the head-line grabbing leadership possibly less so. Just like how a governments legitimacy is an issue of controlling it's populace and it's guns, a movements is largely an issue of controlling it's members and the leadershipless Tea Party is ... sad.

I'm not sure I would agree that their core issue is correct. Yes, we need to cut spending, but at the same time, we have to increase revenue. The fact that you have a large number of the top 2% income earners in the US saying that they should be paying more in taxes is incredible that the Tea Party is so blantantly going against what they say on taxes. I saw an article from the WSJ a couple months back that looked at the amount of taxes paid by the top 2% as a function of what percentage of income they pay against what percentage of income the middle class (those making $25k to $75k for a family of four per year) and the top 2% were paying between 18% and 22% of their income in taxes where as the middle class was paying between 25% and 28%. As it goes, the fact that the Tea Party, and the Republicans as a whole, can't recognize that taxes have to be raised against this top 2% (and, as I said, a number of the top 2% are boggling over why their taxes aren't higher) is astounding.