This Is What the Tea Party Movement Is About
This Is What the Tea Party Movement Is About
By Mona Charen
Though it hasn't been celebrated as such, Scott Walker's victory in Wisconsin represents the full flowering of the tea party movement. It is also a sign -- among others -- that the Republican Party has recaptured its ideological core.
The tea partyers are often mischaracterized as extreme right-wingers. Thus, proponents of same-sex marriage or unrestricted abortion will invoke "tea party" elements as those most opposed to their efforts. That's off target. Though many in the movement may have conservative social views, those weren't the issues that spurred them to organize, demonstrate and vote.
No, the tea partyers -- judging by their signs, speeches and writings -- were alarmed about irresponsible government spending, bailouts of the undeserving and spiraling debt. The tea partyers are actually the 21st century "goo-goos" -- good government types -- the label that was attached to progressives in the early 20th century. They aren't anarchists, racists (as in the more febrile accusations of their opponents) or culture warriors. They simply want to see government scale back and perform its essential functions fairly, efficiently and honestly.
For some time, Republican office holders were little better than Democrats when it came to spending, accountability and reform. The size of government seemed to grow inexorably under both parties. Some Republicans earned and deserved tea party disdain.
But we are now in an era of true Republican reform. The reformers are Republican governors who, like Scott Walker, have chosen to tackle the bloated budgets and corrupt bargains of state governments. At least a half dozen Republican governors -- Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, Chris Christie in New Jersey, Mitch Daniels in Indiana, Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Bob McDonnell in Virginia, and Walker himself -- have taken on the public sector unions frontally.
The word "corrupt" is not too strong for a system that worked like this: Unions worked to elect Democrats. Once elected, Democrats passed laws that permitted states to withhold union dues from state employee paychecks, further enriching and entrenching public sector unions. State governments then signed contracts with the unions giving far more generous pay, work rules (like teacher tenure) and benefits than the average taxpayer receives. Unions thus elected the people who sat across the table from them in contract negotiations. As Victor Gotbaum, a New York City union leader boasted, "We have the ability to elect our own boss." That mutual backscratching has burdened taxpayers with pension and other liabilities mounting into the trillions.
On his first day in office, Chris Christie signed an executive order forbidding public sector unions from making political contributions (corporations were already barred). He then embarked on the grueling, but necessary, battle to require unionized teachers to accept slightly less generous pensions and to make tiny contributions to their own health insurance.
In New Mexico, Susana Martinez has cut spending by $150 million without raising taxes, reduced the state workforce by 5 percent, eliminated duplicative taxes on small businesses, and increased local control of schools by opting out of No Child Left Behind.
Indiana's Mitch Daniels ended collective bargaining for public sector unions early in his tenure. He balanced budgets without raising taxes, earned the state a AAA bond rating for the first time, reduced the number of state workers to the lowest in the nation, improved the business climate, transformed a $700 billion deficit into a $1.3 billion surplus, and earned Indiana the Tax Foundation's "First in the Midwest" award for business climate. Indiana's government is also more efficient: child support collections are up, wait times for child services have been halved, 150 state troopers have been added, and the Healthy Indiana Plan provides health insurance to 50,000 low-income Hoosiers. Among participants, emergency room use has declined. Perhaps the most emblematic of all Indiana's accomplishments is that wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles have been reduced to less than eight minutes.
Both Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Bob McDonnell in Virginia have pushed for reform of teacher tenure. McDonnell, like the other Republican reform governors, has reduced state spending. Jindal has also passed a balanced budget, ethics reform, tax cuts, and one of the most sweeping school voucher laws in the nation.
Scott Walker is in good company. He and his fellow reform Republicans are the vanguard of a refreshed and confident Republican Party. It's a party that, unlike the Democrats, is confronting the looming threat of government debt. That is what the tea partyers have been demanding. All of the Republican reformers are popular. Who knows -- if this continues, we may even escape bankruptcy.
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Reader Comments
Page: 1 — Blog Index
There’s over 1 million houses in the state of Florida that are in foreclosure…
…and on top of that, over 200,000 people filed for new foreclosure last month
So much for the private sector doing fine………
Over 1 million houses in the state of Florida are in foreclosure
Link
Quite simple philosophy actually.
Too simple for the Progressives. Maybe that's why they spend so much time trying to complicate it.
Great article.
So right, many in The TEA Party groups are not that conservative in social matters;
some are more libertarian.
We need far less government all the way around.
We need just enough law and order so we can all aspire to a good quality of life
without living in fear constantly.
But not so many laws that it affects our freedom.
There needs to be a purging of the laws that have been written since the beginning
in each state to delete obsolete laws and correct the bad laws
or the ones that are not enforced.
We need fewer but more meaningful laws on the books.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel
if things keep moving in the "right" direction!
Have a great weekend!
Saturday Pictures @ dazzlejunction.com
People should know, when you order a cup of coffee, it is hot, it will burn y ou if you spill it on yourself.
Certain foods/drinks will make you fat, it is your choice if you consume them.
If this happens it is your problem not mine.
(I told my kids if I die of lung cancer because I was a smoker for 25 yrs (I quit 5 yrs ago)
they better not sue because it was my choice to smoke those cigs. I knew it was harmful. All of us smokers know it is harmful.
Some tools can harm you if you don't know how to use them properly.
Using certain products/drugs/etc will eventually kill you after making you very sick.
Parents are responsible for teaching their children the "dos and don'ts" of life.
There should not be lawsuits when a person does something stupid... when you do stupid things you usually have to reap the consequences.
Accidents happen; always have always will..
you don't need to be able to sue the other side if it was you that did something stupid.
I could go on and on but I will stop now! LOL!
Posted on June 9, 2012
Friday, President Obama said the private sector was fine.
The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. Oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, Governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.
Later ……
“It’s absolutely clear the economy is not doing fine,” President Obama said at the White House ….. There are too many people out of work. The housing market is still weak, too many homes underwater and that’s precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference.”
Lol, so Obama thinks that hiring useless state bureaucrats will magically improve the housing market. But, even that is pretending that there’s some magical money tree Republicans in congress can just go pick off of. That’s fascinating Barry.
You see, what Barry doesn’t understand, is that government employees, at any level are a net negative to the economy. If it were that easy, we could all become government employees and then that would fix the economy. But, that only happens in the land of unicorns and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I’ve much more to state on this, but, I’ve gotta run for a bit. But, check how Estonia is doing versus an economy which embraces government employees to buoy their economy, say someone like Greece.
Link
Some very good points.
All laws should be written so that anyone with a high school education and understand their meaning.
Case in point...Obamacare.
2700 pages? Please. Scalia called that cruel and unusual punishment. We were supposed to wait until it was passed to see what it said...Where did that come from?
Okay, If folks want a nationalized health care system, in my opinion it should read:
"All US citizens get health care. It will cost you $XXXX.XX per year. If you don't like this, you can buy your own coverage on the open market or just risk it."
Then we would know whether it was something we wanted or not.
The 2700 page document sounds more like job security for lawyers.
Hummm, I think you are on to something.
Example, today we fished. The kids caught several bass, some in the 5-7 lb range, and a couple of turtles that were in the 25 lb range.
A progressive would say it is bad to catch them and all.
I say, they should be thankful they did not get eaten and were released.
Perspective is quite different for those who don't have to fend for themselves at least once.
They better be thanking somebody else for their convenience for they don't provide it with their initiatives.
Just sayin, welcome to the real world to some.
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