That tea party is so grass rootsy they're holding strategy sessions at The Heritage Foundation. Good thing they're just looking out for the little people. I found C-SPAN's description of this program rather odd:
Tea Party leaders talked about the future of the movement among new members of the 112th Congress. Following their remarks, they responded to audience members' questions.
"Tea Party leaders" huh. And just who are those "leaders"?
- Michael Franc, Vice President, Government Relations, Heritage Foundation
- Ed Morrissey from HotAir
- Billie Tucker First Coast Tea Party
- Byron York, Washington Examiner
I didn't know Franc, Morrissey and York were "Tea Party leaders". The only self-identified "Tea Party" leader who was there, Billie Tucker had this to say about "entitlements".
Q: Now all three of you have mentioned that for true financial reform we need to cut back on entitlements. Is there the motivation and the courage and the desire for the tea party to go into that fight? That's a long hard fight to cut Social Security, food stamps, Medicare, all those programs.
TUCKER: Yes and we've had discussions about that because we know it is a problem. Again, the American people are smart and the tea party members are smart. And they know we cannot talk about, you know, doing away with spending without really looking at the entitlement programs. The word that we do not like in the tea party movement is to say that Social Security is entitlement.
People are sick of that and they want that changed. They paid into a system that was set up by this government, again, sort of like this health care, was not entitlement; we all paid into it. The problem is corruption happened and they didn't do with the money what they were supposed to do with the money. So we're willing to work on that issue, but we're not willing to give it all up, because they screwed it up. Does that make sense?
But when it comes to entitlements for people that are not willing to work, absolutely, we're willing to talk about that as well. Because there are a lot of good people out there that can get to work but they're now being paid... they're on the dole of the government and we can't have that.
So we're willing to negotiate. We're going to take care of the people who paid into the system. I've got a 85 year old mother in law who lives with us. She paid into that system and doggone it she's gonna' get out what she's entitled to. And she's willing to give up a little but not everything for people that are unwilling to work.
Gee, I wonder who she could be talking about here?
