if you are familiar with American history, you will know that the English rulers taxed tea and other commodities to "pay back" the cost of the French & Indian War that was fought in the colonies... giving rise to the cry "no taxation without representation" and eventually the American Revolution.

200 hundred years later that message has become distorted into the belief that the original tea party (destroying a cargo of tea) was a revote against taxes.. period!

the Tea Party arose from the Conservative Right and pledged "no new taxes" to their voters and they have been obstructing cooperation between and amoung the two houses of congress. A big thorn in their side is what is known as the Bush tax cuts. The federal surplus of $ left by the Clinton administration let the Bush administration feel it was OK to put in tax cuts which benefited both rich & poor - in the name of fairness.

The Tea Party regards removing the tax cuts as NEW taxes, when that would actually be restoration of the same tax structure that existed in the Clinton years. And completely disregards any need for fiscally responsible measures. The "I want to have my cake and eat it too" mentality.

But my analysis of the attitude of the voters who put these assholes in office is that they think that god is on their side and will make things right if they just stay the course. Obviously they never consider that god helps those who help themselves. And the ones "helping themselves" are the 1 percenters and it's our money they are helping themselves to. But then it has always been the gullible who make the best "marks" for con men.