Some don't want the war in Libya: Tea Party

Tea Party Reps Split On War Cash For U.S. In Libya 

WASHINGTON — The House's tea party caucus split on a major foreign policy vote Friday – whether to cut off money for air attacks in Libya – revealing a divide on the philosophical question of how often and under what terms the U.S. should intervene in foreign conflicts.
The tea party Republicans overwhelmingly oppose President Barack Obama's decision to participate in the NATO-led operation in Libya without consulting Congress. But 27 of the caucus' 59 members voted against a GOP-led bill to strip federal dollars from part of the American effort there.
The group's chairwoman, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, was among those who voted no. The GOP presidential hopeful said she opposed the bill because it stopped short of halting all United States spending on the conflict.
"There was an opportunity today to limit funding to a Libyan operation, but I could not support it because it does not go far enough. Funds must be fully cut off to the president's involvement in Libya," she said in a statement.
Her role in the failure of the GOP bill was sorely noted by tea partiers outside the Beltway.
"We have no congressional authorization for military action in Libya, but our brilliant GOP leadership did not cut off funding," wrote Judson Phillips on a blog for one group, Tea Party Nation. "Could they possibly be any more gutless?"
The bill would have barred attacks by pilotless drones and other airstrikes but allowed the United States to continue actions in support of NATO. The full House defeated it, 238-180.
The 31-27 split among members of the caucus listed on Bachmann's website revealed that the populist movement committed to cutting federal spending is less united on foreign policy – even when the question is about federal spending.
The tea party caucus members split along the same arguments as the rest of the House over philosophical questions of when the U.S. should intervene in foreign conflict, when it should choose isolationism – and what to do when the president does not consult Congress before engaging.

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On that last question, there was little debate. With one exception, the tea party caucus members voted to reject Obama's engagement in an earlier vote on whether to authorize it. That measure also failed, 295-123. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was the only tea party caucus member to vote to authorize Obama's actions in Libya.
When the House moved on to the GOP-led measure to defund the conflict, the tea party caucus, like the rest of the chamber, sent mixed signals. After overwhelmingly rejecting Obama's engagement in Libya, the House defeated the GOP proposal to bar funding for drone attacks and other airstrikes, 238-180.
One reason for the unusual divide: Republican leaders did not lobby – or "whip"_ members on what they considered a vote of conscience. Another: The loosely affiliated tea party movement's preferences were apparently unknown to members of the caucus.
"I don't know, do they have a position?" asked Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who voted against cutting off funding for Libya operations.
The caucus split on the second bill, with some members, like Rep. Todd Aiken, choosing an isolationist approach.
"While the human rights concerns in Libya are undeniable, there are dozens of countries around the world that are doing similar or worse things to their citizens," the Missouri Republican said. "We are not the world's police force, and we should not be sending our forces into combat without a clear connection to our national interests."
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., joined Bachmann and 25 other caucus members in voting no to stripping funding.
"Once American military personnel are engaged in hostilities, this Congress has an obligation to stand by our troops," Pence said.
Tea party caucus member Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., did not vote.

The article can be found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/25/tea-party-reps-split-on-w_n_884521.html

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Tea Party: We plan our own dept panel

 Tea Party Plans Its Own Debt Panel

 

While the Tea Party movement has led the charge for cutting the national debt, its supporters have often struggled to explain how, exactly, they would do so. Now some are out to change that, joining a Tea Party debt commission that plans to hold hearings over the summer, in the hopes of delivering recommendations to lawmakers by January.
The commission is being organized by FreedomWorks, the libertarian advocacy group that helped grow the Tea Party movement and mobilize it for the midterm elections. And its recommendations are likely to line up with the goals of that group, which in turn tend to reflect those of libertarian organizations like the Cato Institute. (FreedomWorks’ motto is Lower Taxes, Less Government, More Freedom, and it has worked against environmental regulations and for increased privatization of health care.)
“If you look if you look at the landscape in Washington, D.C., there’s a lot of Democrats who control two-thirds of the process who are now sitting on their hands, waiting to point fingers at Republicans who propose something, and there’s too many Republicans who are afraid that the public won’t understand a serious proposal to solve the budget deficit,” said Matt Kibbe, the group’s president.

“We think, like with the first days of the Tea Party movement, that the only way we will ever reduce the debt and balance the budget is if America beats Washington and Tea Party activists take over this process, take over the public debate and engage the American people in the hard work of making tough choices.”
FreedomWorks held training for about 150 activists from 30 states at its headquarters in Washington over the weekend, with sessions dedicated to educating them about the budget proposals by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, both Republicans who strongly embrace libertarian economic principles.
The activists, along with FreedomWorks staff, came up with parameters for their budget proposals, declaring that they would have to balance the federal budget within 10 years, reduce federal spending to 18 percent of the gross domestic product, reduce the national debt to no more than 66 percent of the G.D.P., assume that revenue accounts for no more than 19 percent of the G.D.P., reduce federal spending by at least $300 billion in the first year and reduce federal spending by at least $9 trillion over 10 years.
All this is a tall order; for example, the debt now equals nearly 100 percent of the gross domestic product. And with its limits on revenue — and the politics behind those limits — it is unlikely that the Tea Party commission will allow anything that looks like a tax increase.
The commission, to be formally announced Monday, is intended as a rebuke to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that President Obama named, which delivered its recommendations last year. Those recommendations were met with generally negative reviews from both parties, who were unwilling to make the sacrifices that were called for. But the Tea Party commission is modeled after President Obama’s, in one way — it, too, will have 18 members (though this one is unlikely to be bipartisan, as the president’s was).
The members will be chosen from 18 swing states, and will hold hearings in those states over the summer, Mr. Kibbe said.
It will also have a strong crowd-sourcing component, much like the Contract From America, which Tea Party activists created, wiki-style, as a kind of manifesto for the midterms. (Those ideas had some influence: the rules that House Republicans passed after the Tea Party victories in the midterms included a requirement, lifted from the contract, that all new legislation had to cite the specific provision of the Constitution that authorized it.) The commission will solicit ideas and have people vote on them at a website, teapartydebtcommission.com.
It aims to have proposals ready by January, when the presidential campaign will draw even more attention to economic proposals.
Mr. Kibbe said that his group hopes the commission will present its ideas to the Tea Party caucus in the House and Senate at hearings in the winter.

The article can be found at: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/tea-party-plans-its-own-debt-panel/

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