The Tea Party was born in 2009. It is now two years old.
All parents know what the "terrible twos" look like. What's happening now on Capitol Hill is unmistakable: the Tea Party is throwing a tantrum.
When they first arrived in Washington, the Tea Party freshman class was fawned over and adored. They were given seats on powerful committees. They took special classes about the Constitution and spent a lot of time talking about what they thought was in it. They held votes to stick it to their least favorite things -- women's health care, environmental protection, and public radio.
But then something happened. The Tea Party discovered it couldn't get everything it wanted.
Passing a budget is a task that requires a certain amount of compromise and sacrifice. As such, it is a task that two-year-olds are not particularly well suited to perform. Grown-up Congresses pass budgets all the time -- they bicker and they argue, but in the end they realize that the functioning of the United States government and the well-being of their constituents is worth a little political sacrifice.
But not so for the Tea Party. They wanted tens of billions of dollars in budget cuts. They got tens of billions of dollars in budget cuts. They wanted to slash funding for preschools and college scholarships and foreign aid. But that wasn't enough. What they really wanted -- really, really, really wanted -- was to defund Planned Parenthood and keep the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. And when they didn't get those things, they started screaming.
Toddlers don't recognize that the world does not begin and end with their demands. They do not realize that the matches they're playing with could hurt someone.
A government shutdown -- which is what the Tea Party wants if Democrats and moderate Republicans won't give in to their every demand -- is a destructive thing. The last one, which lasted for three weeks, cost taxpayers $1.25 billion . If the government shuts down tomorrow morning, 800,000 government workers will go on leave without pay. Small businesses that rely on the government for business will stop bringing in income. U.S. troops fighting abroad would have their pay delayed . The U.S. would stop issuing passports. The D.C. city government would all but grind to a halt.
But the collateral cost of their tantrum doesn't seem to bother the Tea Party. They're too busy crying and screaming to realize that they're hurting people, and might eventually hurt themselves.
Good parents don't try to reason with a toddler holding a box of matches -- they take the matches away. House Speaker John Boehner has so far been overly indulgent of his young caucus. Now is the time for him to teach them what it takes to be grown-ups in government.
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I'm relieved we did not have to deal with an actual shutdown, but if that had been the outcome, the toddlers would have scored the temporary victory akin to the kid getting the candy they wanted in the grocery store.
Boehner needs to start showing some tough love and employing more discipline (aka leadership). These tantrums need to cease now!
Worse yet, to try to convince them that they have shot themselves in the foot is hopeless for the conservative base reacts with anxiety and fear to uncertainty and will always look to and support their masters of the universe without question....
It's my impression, we must recognize that they are largely uninformed by choice and don't operate with reason or clarity. Scary stuff....
Right. Leave it up to the crybaby in chief to teach them.
http://www.neurointerests.com/?p=701
Debate and arguing is healthy. It's good for our Republic. Today Obama has stated he will come up with a plan to tackle the deficits. This is a win for the people and the conservative movement because of this "childness" Tea Party.
As far as your argument that if you cannot pass a budget then you are not an adult; doesn't that mean the Democrats are children too? For they hadn't passed a budget in two years!
The reason the 2010 budget hadn't been passed yet is the Senate Republicans filibustered everything to placate the tea party.
And they understood it about as well as any two year old. All they heard was "blah, blah, freedom, blah, blah".
True.
Then spank their little butts (2 is perfectly acceptable) so the youngster will think twice about even TOUCHING matches again.
For those gasping in horror at the idea of spanking the little darlings...teapartiers or toddlers...the next time they could burn the house down while no one is watching.