Tea Party Rules

Scrolling through Wikipedia's list of Tea Party Republicans in Congress, Mad Dog was surprised to see names from 37 states--it's not just Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and South Carolina--there are names from Michigan, Maryland and lots of blue states. New Hampshire has a Congressman named Bass who is a Tea Party man, and a senator, Kelly Ayotte.   From the little pustules of Connecticut, West Virginia, California, Tea Party Republicans have been sent to Congress.

Clearly, these are representatives of  some of the  people who believe any taxation is an anathema, which is to say, any government is an anathema.  Of course, many of these same people are ardent warriors and they love defense spending. If conversations with local New Hampshire tea party enthusiasts are any indication, many of them live on Social Security, Medicare and military pensions, with Veterans Administration health care, and they see no contradiction in their loathing of all things government and their own feeding at government teats. 

And there are, apparently, enough of them in the current Congress to block any action on a budget compromise--so they can get what they want: No government. Tea Party loyalists can paralyze the government as they please. They have been elected and they can do what they please.

Here is the speech I'd like to see Mr. Obama give:

Last November, over half of the nation voted for me and my promise to move this country forward with vigorous government, with taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and with appropriate cuts in government spending. But pockets of the country sent representatives to government as part of a newly radicalized Republican Party. That new incarnation of the party of Lincoln would hardly be recognizable to Lincoln today.
It is a party which is dedicated to the proposition that no government is better than even moderate government. It is a party which believes taxing even the richest 1% of Americans is government tyranny and unacceptable.  They have enough numbers in the House of Representatives to paralyze the government and they are doing just that. There is really nothing my administration or my government can do without a willing partner on the other side. That is the nature of the checks and balances written into the Constitution. The underlying assumption of the Constitution is that the people's representatives will provide a government which does more good than harm. They Republican Party is currently dedicated to doing the opposite.  It is dedicated to the destruction of the government and of all the things it does to provide health care, security and economic stability for the people.
So, I will take a vacation, enforced upon me by the intransigence of the Republican Party. When I return, I will  keep the executive branch functioning. When, and if ,the legislative branch can come to its senses, the members of Congress know where I live. I'm right down Pennsylvania Avenue, ready to work, whenever they are.  God help the United States of America.