Tea Party Fumes as Fiscal Fights Drag On

The divide between the establishment GOP and the grassroots on the right is getting bigger than it has been in years.

Movement leaders feel conservatives had momentum in the negotiations with President BarackObama’s administration and were could have demanded serious concessions on Obamacare and spending until establishment Republicans stepped in toundercut them. Now, after HouseRepublican leadership’s latest proposal has fallen apart because HouseSpeaker John Boehner did not have the votes, and the focus turns back tonegotiations between Senate GOP leadership and Senate Democrats, theTea Party movement could not be more outraged at the way Washington isworking. As The New York Times noted in a piece published late Tuesday, conservatives and establishment Republicans are “nearing open revolt.”

“Theruling elite is negotiating with the ruling elite and the voice of thepeople is left out,” Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny BethMartin said in an interview Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K.Bannon conducted on Tuesday afternoon while guest-hosting the WilkowMajority on Sirius XM Patriot channel. 

We are doing everything we canto remind the Senate and the House that real Americans across thiscountry right now today are getting letters saying their healthinsurance prices are going up, they’re losing their jobs and their hoursat work and they don’t have the same access to doctors that they hadjust a few months ago because of Obamacare. So we are reminding all ofthese elected officials that this fight is about Obamacare and that theAmerican people need relief from it. You said cave, which is very muchat the moment what it looks like the Republicans are going to do. We’llmake sure people understand that this is the Republicans looking out forthemselves rather than looking out for the American people, and thesame with the Democrats.

ForAmerica chairman Brent Bozell,another leader in the conservative movement, said in a statement, “conservatives have no dog in this fight anymore.”

“Conservativeswanted ObamaCare defunded, or at least delayed,” Bozell said. 

Theywanted the size of this bloated, bankrupt federal government reduced, orat least kept in check. Neither of these things will happen with thisGOP leadership, not in the House, and certainly not in the Senate. Thisdebate is now between moderate and liberal Republicans on one side andradical Democrats on the other, so it’s time for conservatives to walkaway. No conservative should carry water for this mess. ObamaCare is amonstrosity and everyone knows it. It is a credit to Mike Lee, Ted Cruzand others that they were willing to fight, and make no mistake: Americais on their side.

Bozell called for outright rebellion againstcongressional GOP leadership for their role in causing this situationafter conservatives had all the momentum in the political fight beforethe establishment undercut the movement.

“The Republican Partyposition collapsed because ultimately neither John Boehner nor MitchMcConnell had any position on anything,” Bozell said. 

It is time forconservatives on the Hill and Tea Party supporters across the country towalk away from this mess and consider options and opportunities forregime change in the Republican Party. The defund effort hasre-energized the conservative movement and the grassroots Tea Partyuprising, and the GOP can expect the full force of both to be felt goingforward.

Martin similarly thinks it is time for the movementto look toward elections and other matters to think about replacingcurrent GOP leadership officials, and Democrats in Congress who areworking with them against the Tea Party movement. “When you look at whatthe Senate has come up with, they clearly are looking after laborunions and not the American people,” Martin said. 

And when you look atwhat the House is coming up with and they’re looking after medicaldevice companies and not looking after the American people. If you’rerepresented by special interests it’s much easier to have a voice withthe politicians than it is if you are standing up because you are a freeAmerican citizen. It doesn’t mean we give up; it doesn’t mean we stopfighting. It just means this is the reality and this is what we face andwe have to keep on fighting it and fight this much harder going forwardfrom now until next year’s elections and beyond.

Specifically,Martin points to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. SusanCollins (R-ME) as two names in the establishment she deems responsible for caving.said. 

And it’s obvious that Sen. [Mitch] McConnell [(R-KY)] hasn’t beenwith us. I think a lot of the frustration that we have and are sensingright now is on the Senate Republicans who have not stood up and backedup what the House has done. The House has sent over 14 different billsto fund the government. Do the Senators get out and talk about how theseare the bills that have been sent over and how Harry Reid has beenstalling it? Absolutely not. They’re in the backroom cutting deals.

Martin has previously called out House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for his role in negotiations, too.

Thoseare hardly the only two leaders of the conservative movement outragedat what congressional GOP leadership is doing right now. “This deal isjust like all the other last minute deals, nothing accomplished on anyof the legitimate crisis we face and full of fat-cat hand outs to thecrony class,” Dustin Stockton, a national Tea Party activist who ishelping several Tea Party candidates against establishment figuresincluding attempting to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said in anemail. “At this point Speaker Boehner, Harry Reid, and theadministration think that the electorate is too simple and stupid torealize their political tricks but they’ve used this tactic too oftenand we’re on to their silly little game. The primary players in all ofthis will be removed by an electorate that is far more sophisticatedthan the clowns at the Capitol.”

Peter Schweizer, the presidentof the Government Accountability Institute, told Breitbart News onTuesday that this situation, and the lack of focus on protecting theAmerican people from Obamacare, is proof the GOP establishment andDemocrats alike want to force that healthcare law on the American peoplebut do not want it for themselves. “The biggest point of contentionhere is the attempt to expect the permanent political class to abide byObamacare like the rest of us,” Schweizer said. “That’s the third railthat the political establishment does not want to deal with.”