John Boehner, GOP May Not Be Hearing Tea Party Pals

WASHINGTON - The Tea Party roared Thursday. Or, it tried to, but it wasn't clear how well its demands were heard on Capitol Hill.

A couple hundred anti-tax activists braved a chilly drizzle outside the Senate in an unimpressive scene that was a far cry from the throngs that overflowed the Capitol grounds in past rallies.

The top demand was for GOP leaders to stick to their blueprint of cutting $61 billion from the rest of this year's budget.

Kathy Dirr, of Liberty Township, Ohio, in Majority Leader John Boehner's district, put it bluntly.

"I say to the Republican leadership, take off your lace panties, stop being noodle backs, take a strong, bold, unwavering stand," she told the rally, to great approval.

Mark Meckler, a Tea Party Patriot leader, told the Associated Press Boehner and others would face primaries if they fail.

But Boehner suggested to reporters he was willing to settle for "spending cuts that we can get an agreement to." Democrats are offering a compromise $33 billion in cuts.

And even Tea Party darling Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert told the Huffington Post there was room to make a deal -- although moments later he told his fans they should toss the GOP from office if they don't win the full $61 billion cut.

"We could work out some differences," Gohmert said, before taking the stage and praising the crowd for keeping lawmakers from caving.

"You bring calcium to those who need more of it for their backbone," Gohmert said to the crowd, adding that if Republicans fall short, "We deserve to be thrown out of office."

Gohmert wasn't alone in serving different rhetorical brews to the Tea Party and reporters.

Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), known as intractable even to his party leaders, fired up the crowd -- then suggested he also is willing to deal.

"The American people want us to be bolder than $30 billion," he told HuffPost, but did not rule out supporting the Dems' $33 billion offer. "It's hard to tell, because I don't know what it would include. But I want to vote for something that cuts a whole heck of a lot more than that."

Spending was not the only issue Tea Partyers may lose the GOP on. They also want Republicans to stick with several riders in the spending bill that fight the culture wars, including defunding Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio, and crippling EPA enforcement.

Senate Democrats have hinted they could entertain one such unrelated measure, but Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) served notice more would bring stalemate.

"If you're going to select riders, be very selective, and avoid those that are going to blow this deal up," Durbin told HuffPost, signaling the EPA measure was one.

If Republicans are not really listening to the Tea Party, which a CNN poll found on Wednesday was dropping in popularity, the Tea Partyers did not appear to be listening to the GOP rhetoric aimed at shifting the blame for a still potential government shutdown away from the activists and Republicans.

Even while Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) insisted the Tea Party doesn't want the government closed, people in the crowd hollered "Shut it down!"

They also repeatedly chanted "Cut it or shut it!"

Dirr explained that no one really wants it closed, but that may be the only "leverage" her side has.

"If it's necessary to shut the government down, then shut the government down," she said.

If the GOP wasn't listening, it's a good bet Democrats were. And it is likely they will point to it as proof it is the GOP's fault if the government runs out of money on April 8.

Additional reporting by Elise Foley and Ryan Grim.

Comments

[fairandbalanced100]

01:23 AM on 04/07/2011

They should ignore the screwballs in the tea party , like Palin & Bachmann ,
& make a deal. The democrats have already given the Republicans almost
everthing they wanted & gave up nothing.

[landskroon]

05:38 AM on 04/04/2011

Silly to expect a state, running without tax meaning it runs on wind- or solar-energy. We all want roads, airports, sewersystems, electricity, clean water, police, trains, healthy food, healthcare (protecting us from TBC for instance), telephone etc etc. When you want that you need to pay for it. Thinking that it can be arranged without tax is fooling yourself. Funny coincidense the opening sentence mentioned wind- and solarenergy, a matter hated by those taxhaters too.

[sotiricon]

05:05 PM on 04/03/2011

Let's get honest here. We need about $2 trillion cut (per year) to balance the budget and start paying down the debt. Let's not say $61B and pretend like we're something ... it's not going to happen anyway.

Cutting $2T is easy to do with government programs, since most of them are garbage (e.g. social security, medicare, etc.) They don't work - never have, never will. We can do a phase out.

The future is in our hands, not the government's.

[fairandbalanced100]

01:27 AM on 04/07/2011

Many people depend on important government programs , like social security, medicare ,
medicaid, & welfare. About 70% agree we need those programs . Most senior citizens
would not be able to get by without them . The best way to balance the budget would
be to let Bush's tax cuts for the rich expire & end the wars & cut military spending.

[Brenda Gertsch]

09:08 AM on 04/03/2011

Crowd noise is SO bad at happy hour. Plus the food is a distraction. After a few; he probably can't hear anything. :)

[racerx577]

10:50 PM on 04/02/2011

Republicans and their corporate sponsors have and are destroying America as we know it. These are the reagan years.

[Gloria Otting Vestring]

09:26 PM on 04/04/2011

Yes you are right. I cannot remember another time in our history (short as it is) when this was such an
"us against them" country!

[fairandbalanced100]

01:30 AM on 04/07/2011

It's the rich & big business & Republicans against the poor & middle class
& senior citizens & children & sick & Democrats. The Democrats are trying
to help a lot more than the Republicans are, so the Democrats should win
more elections, but The Republicans have fooled several middle class people
with their lies.

[retromega]

08:51 PM on 04/02/2011

Hey! Where are the pictures of this crowd of 200 people making "national news"

I could get a larger crowd on a single days notice protesting Patty Hearst's harsh punishment for shooting and killing that woman in a bank, after all wasn't she ...!

Now Michelle Bachmann, a dedicated Carter Supporter, is telling the GOP what to do! Irony, Irony runs deep, but its cold too.

No I did not misspell two maney weords! Michelle Bachmann? No, really! Michelle Bachmann!

I see that her kids support her but where is her husband???????????

Yes Michelle, if you dish it out you have to expect it back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You light a fire, you have to expect it to burn!

And the Kids you advertise as having "raised", what do they think of YOU?

[Brenda Gertsch]

09:09 AM on 04/03/2011

Somebody married her? Wow, first Palin, and then Bachman. Nasty girls always get the guy.

[Gloria Otting Vestring]

09:29 PM on 04/04/2011

Part of it is the MSM madness. The world is falling apart, country by country... yet they feel the baggers deserve some air time. For what? More divisivness?

[CenTexDem]

07:54 PM on 04/02/2011

The GOP and even its Tea Party and too many Dems just don’t get it. Congress must first eliminate fraud and waste in the defense and medicaid budgets. The resulting savings should be used to make social security and medicare solvent and to correct the grave injustice of taxing income average families need for a basic decent standard of living. The rich and corporate elite receive federal government welfare in the form of federal subsidies and tax breaks. This government welfare for the rich is almost a half trillion dollars per year which could be used to make social security and medicare solvent. They only pay 15% income tax on long term capital gains and pay NO social security or medicare taxes on such income. Small businesses especially the self-employed and partners and independent contractors pay more than the wealthy in just social security and medicare taxes alone and they have to pay a whole lot more for the same level of income because they earned it. Release small business and the self-employed from this burden as well as the burden of providing health insurance and watch jobs and wages grow. Eliminate the almost half-trillion dollars per year in government welfare for the rich and corporate elite and release families making less than $75,000 a year from income tax who already pay regressive sales, property, and social security and medicare taxes and watch the economy and the education of their children grow.

[logicdog]

01:20 PM on 04/03/2011

With ideas like that CenTexDem, you should be in the president's cabinet instead of the Wall Street hardliners he's got; and by cabinet I don't mean Biden's closet. . .

[CenTexDem]

03:09 PM on 04/03/2011

Now that big corporations thanks to the Supreme Court case of Citizens United can spend as much money as they want to influence elections, the only way Americans can now hold both political parties accountable is to create and fund a website that first determines which members of Congress will amend the Constitution to repal Citizens United and second that shows "Who Paid What To Whom For What and Why?" as to each member of the Congress and as to each member of a voter's state legislature so voters may remain fully informed and protected from the propaganda of the powerful. An organization like Public Citizen should try to make this happen - they will get mass support from working American families by small but in the aggregate meaningful contributions.

[kiddoc99]

04:23 PM on 04/02/2011

I absolutely support the tea-party in it's efforts on Capitol Hill. I hope they continue push hard on Planned Parenthood and NPR and I hope they convince the R's to follow through and I hope they refuse to compromise and hold fast to their beliefs. I pray they continue their march across this great nation and continue to bear down hard on unions and bargaining rights. This way in 2012 they and their absurd perspective on what constitutes the definition of a "real American" can be flung so far out of office that only Sarah Palin will be able to see them from her kitchen window. I supported McCain in 2008 because despite his conservative posturing today I think he actually has been fairly pragmatic, and I guess I consider myself a conservative centrist. That said president Obama has had the opportunity to really make a positive impact but I wish he would grow a spine. By example, ACA is an excellent way to begin healthcare reform but instead of calling out the R's on their void non-solutions to healthcare, the president and the D's have let R's run roughshod over the legislation. Not only have they completely failed to address the lies that Gingrich and Erickson spout as fact, they haven't done much to point out why ACA is filled with good ideas. So if the only spines in Washington belong to the tea-party, and that gets them evicted, then keep up the fight Rand Paul!

[brievolz84]

04:27 PM on 04/03/2011

You pray that the Tea Party are victorious in their efforts but the cuts they propose help people who actually need those programs. Such programs like heating oil for the poor, education programs...,etc! Instead of attacking people who need these services how about attacking companies who get big tax cuts and people that make more than what they need. How about entitlements or defense spending????

[kiddoc99]

10:28 PM on 04/03/2011

I reread my post and I guess with word-smithing it down to fit the limit, what I was trying to say was lost. I truly believe that the majority of Americans are fairly moderate and the tea-party represents a generally unpalatable extreme. They are highly motivated and convicted of their beliefs and see compromise as capitulation. I believe their ideas are extreme, rash, short-sighted and destructive. They bend truth to suit their political agenda, and propagate a paranoid mistrust of government. My concern is that they will continue to be regarded as a serious political camp, and that must not happen. I think the best chance at permanently discrediting them is to let their ideas gain just enough traction for the electorate as a whole to really understand why they must go. They have succeeded in Wisconsin and Ohio and this has helped many Americans come to realize what a destructive group this really is. I think the best chance at their demise is to allow Americans to see their misguided agenda through their own success. Without control of the senate I don't believe they can cause enough damage to our social safety nets that can't be undone by a crushing defeat in 2012. If the left attacks them they'll look like martyrs. But if their success reveals how morally bankrupt they really are, attacks will come from every direction and they can be relegated to the bottom of the pond where they belong.

[ccemt461]

02:53 PM on 04/02/2011

For a party sooo opposed to tax increases... they're good at it!

[ccemt461]

02:51 PM on 04/02/2011

Tea partiers to America: hey we're having this BIG BIG party. c'mon down and watch how much of the country shows up to lend a hand and give us support. Should be about a million!!

Actuality?: less than 200 could seem to find time!! So glad they represent the ummmm... "majority"?

[BevfromNYC]

03:40 PM on 04/02/2011

That's probably because Tea Partiers actually work for a living.

[ButIDigress]

07:55 PM on 04/02/2011

And are damned lucky to have jobs. But I would think that if the "cause" was so important to them, they would take a vacation day.......

[logicdog]

01:22 PM on 04/03/2011

So did the people protesting in Wisconsin, and the guys holding muskets on the green at Lexington. You're either a patriot, or you're not.

[xtisrisen]

02:06 PM on 04/02/2011

To the Tea Party: Do not dare to speak for me, or presume that you speak for most Americans. Many Americans understand the adage that a civilization, a society, is measured by how it cares for the 'least of these, our brothers and sisters'. Those brothers and sisters are the poor, the sick, the elderly, the forgotten. Those are the babies-to-come now in pregnant women's wombs. Those are the prisoners.
The wealth and well-being of our nation is not measured by tax advantages to large corporations, or corporate welfare to agribusiness and petroleum and bigpharma: the weal of our society is not improved when millionaires in Congress vote protections for themselves and other millionaires while they flaunt their several mansions and profligate lifestyle. "Trickle-down" economy never works so that every working citizen has sufficient -- it works only to enrich the already wealthy and take from those whose labor creates real product.
When Congress and Senate and the Executive Branch of federal government again realize that their sworn duty is to promote the well-being and opportunity for all Americans, then will they be the leaders who will bring a new era of real prosperity for all.
The Tea Baggers have been sold a barrel of snake oil and Ponzi scheme promises: if they want to believe those, fine: but they neither have right to presume that others believe as they do, nor the right to shove their beliefs on the rest of us.

[kiddoc99]

02:48 PM on 04/02/2011

Absolutely, positively, right on!

[Trepasky]

02:53 PM on 04/02/2011

Very true
Their influence and public acceptance continues to drop!

[Gloria Otting Vestring]

09:53 PM on 04/04/2011

Thank heavens for that!

[bobbertino84]

11:39 AM on 04/02/2011

Liberty Township, OH? That says it all. I think I hear banjos.

[K August]

09:38 AM on 04/02/2011

I guess the measly crowd that showed up were the last ones that hadn't figured out they were duped. Those "cut the budget" words rang hollow when a lot of them figured it out that cut the budget meant take it away from the middle class but keep the subsidies for big oil and any corporation that gave big to the GOP.

[LawTalkingGuy]

11:12 AM on 04/02/2011

Hopefully by this time next year even more of them will have woken up to the fact that they're dupes and tools, and will stay home instead of showing up to do more damage to the country.

[xtisrisen]

02:06 PM on 04/02/2011

Yea and amen, K August!

[K August]

09:27 AM on 04/02/2011

The Koch's tea party busses must have been busy elsewhere.

[yougg]

08:20 AM on 04/02/2011

The Tea Baggers are nothing but pawns for the weathy groups that backed them. In 2012 Tea Baggers and the Republicans are going to take a huge nose dive. They are out to destroy the middle class. They have made a huge mistake going after working people.