{"id":5040,"date":"2011-07-28T01:18:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T08:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5040"},"modified":"2011-07-28T01:20:54","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T08:20:54","slug":"why-the-tea-party-is-unyieldingly-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5040","title":{"rendered":"Why The Tea Party Is Unyieldingly Stupid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post published an op-ed today by Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation. The opinion piece appeared under the title “Why the Tea Party is unyielding on the debt ceiling.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"TeaThis is a serious subject that could result in severe economic hardship if the Republicans, steered by their ignorant Tea Partners, persist in refusing any reasonable compromise or resolution. However, the editorial was so rife with dim-witted logic it’s hard not to ridicule. Phillips opened the article by complaining about a media narrative that…<\/p>\n

“…Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were close to a deal last week that would have resolved the debt-ceiling crisis. It would have allowed for continued borrowing and more ‘revenue,’ the euphemism of the day for tax increases. And the Tea Party said no.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The next paragraph began “The Tea Party did say no,”<\/em> effectively taking credit for doing the very thing he’s complaining of being accused of. Then Phillips asks…<\/p>\n

“Why is the Tea Party intransigent on the debt ceiling? Why is the Tea Party pushing congressional Republicans so hard that we have a crisis?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Phillips answers his own question by saying that…<\/p>\n

“We do not have a debt crisis. We have a spending crisis. There is only one way you get to a debt crisis \u2014 you spend too much money.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In that bit of twisted logic Phillips denies that there is a debt crisis while simultaneously explaining how we came to have a debt crisis. Then he gets off into some contortions about Greece and Star Wars while blaming Obama for this “axis of fiscal evil.”<\/em> He makes no mention of the fact that Obama’s proposal cuts the debt by four trillion dollars, four times more than the GOP plan. He also misstates the desires of the American people saying that they don’t want their taxes raised. In fact, most polls show majorities favoring an approach that includes new revenues imposed on corporations and the rich. Next Phillips complains that…<\/p>\n

“The left has accused the Tea Party of wanting America to default on its debt obligations. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Tea Party wants America to stop incurring debt obligations and to cut back on the wasteful spending already in place.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Phillips knows a little something about getting further from the truth. Remember, the title of his op-ed is “Why the Tea Party is unyielding on the debt ceiling.”<\/em> So, his irrational whining notwithstanding, he is explicitly advocating that America default on its debt obligations. That’s what will occur if the debt ceiling is not raised. What’s more, he misunderstands that raising the debt ceiling now does not in any way incur new spending. It merely authorizes payment of debts already incurred, mostly before Obama even took office. But Phillips saves the best, and funniest, for last:<\/p>\n

“America cannot keep borrowing money it does not have.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Um…Jud…I’m pretty sure that the only time you borrow money is when you don’t have it. If you have it there would be no need to borrow it. And this guy is a leader of the Tea Party movement? What does that say about the followers? It is truly frustrating to think that our nation could be plunged into another recession because of these dolts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post published an op-ed today by Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation. The opinion piece appeared under the title “Why the Tea Party is unyielding on the debt ceiling.” This is a serious subject that could result in severe economic hardship if the Republicans, steered by their ignorant Tea Partners, persist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[860,534],"class_list":["post-5040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-wankery","tag-judson-phillips","tag-tea-party"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1ji","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1827,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1827","url_meta":{"origin":5040,"position":0},"title":"Tea Party Convention: Failure To Launch","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/26\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The much ballyhooed Tea Party Unity Convention has announced that they will be postponing plans for their summer gathering. Originally scheduled for mid-July, organizers are now looking at an unspecified date in October. Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips attempted to characterize the rescheduling as strategic asserting that... \"...it would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2745,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2745","url_meta":{"origin":5040,"position":1},"title":"Tea Party Convention: Failure To Launch [Update]","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/18\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tea Party Nation appears to be coming apart. Plans for the National Tea Party Unity Convention have been in turmoil since it was first announced last February. Their original date was in mid-July, but that was scuttled for a variety of reasons that all sounded like excuses to me.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5059,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5059","url_meta":{"origin":5040,"position":2},"title":"Why Is Anyone Listening To The #@$%*#& Tea Party?","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/31\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"What is so hard about this? Congress is struggling to fashion a compromise agreement on a bill to raise the debt ceiling. The Republicans are insisting on attaching unrelated provisions to the bill to satisfy the tantrums of Tea Party-affiliated members who are demanding deficit reduction that imposes severe spending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3403,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3403","url_meta":{"origin":5040,"position":3},"title":"Wherefore Art Thou Tea Party?","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/12\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a little more than a month since the mid-term elections. Voters, fueled by anger and dissatisfaction with the progress of the economic recovery, drove the majority Democrats from power and placed a sort of blind faith in the Republicans who put us into this stubborn recession in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4937,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4937","url_meta":{"origin":5040,"position":4},"title":"Who Is Really Responsible For The National Debt?","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/18\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The debate over whether to increase the debt ceiling has included relentless assertions as to who is responsible for the nation's debt having skyrocketed to its present state. The media has utterly failed in presenting the issue objectively. So here it is (pdf) from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office: The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5108,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5108","url_meta":{"origin":5040,"position":5},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Obama And The Tea Party","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/5\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Once again, Fox Nation outright lies in a headline article. The arrogance of the Fox Nationalists is astonishing in that they will brazenly lie even while providing a link to the source data the exposes them as liars. Here we have Fox Nation headlining that President Obama is more unpopular\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5040"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5043,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5040\/revisions\/5043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}