As many people who keep up with the news know by now, ever since last year’s election, Florida has turned into a sort of Tea Party Mecca. We’re not as bad as Texas or Mississippi, but between the governor that looks and acts like the lovechild of Lex Luthor and the Crypt Keeper after degenerating under the thrall of the One Ring of Power, the state legislature that’s decided that and are the most important problems in a state that has over ten percent unemployment, and the fact that one of our Congressmen likes to spend his time incoherently rambling on about joy comes in short supply.
Which is why stories amuse the hell out of me when they pop up.
South Florida Tea Party Chairman Everett Wilkinson thinks the GOP budget — and in particular its call to phase out Medicare and replace it with a marketplace for private insurance — is a total disaster. He’s saying that Republicans, including members in his sphere of influence like Rep. Allen West (R-FL), should back away from it.
In an email to fellow Tea Partiers last week, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, Wilkinson called the GOP plan a “public policy nightmare” that could trigger “huge Democratic wins in 2012,” and prompt Republicans to blame the Tea Party for their losses.
It should come as no surprise to anyone the Wilkinson has come out against the budget; in a retirement state like Florida the Republican’s “CouponCare” scheme is going to go over poorly when. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the vast majority of them (Tea Party included) from praising it endlessly.
More importantly though, if the Republican’s get beaten horribly next year, why shouldn’t they blame the Tea Party? Its the Tea Party freshmen who led the charge and tried to kill Medicare, the EPA, and Planned Parenthood. Its the Tea Party freshman who want to see the government default and trigger an economic collapse if they cant get their way in public policy debates. Its the Tea Party freshman who promised that they’d create jobs, and then proceeded to do nothing about jobs once they got into office. Its the Tea Party governors like Walker, Snider, Scott, Kasich, and LePage who are trying to turn their states into theocratic-corporatist wonderlands.
The entire Republican Party has passed an event horizon of ignorance and irresponsibility, acting less like a responsible governing body and more like a spoiled four year old who want’s everything and then throws a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get that. The entire party deserves to burn for it, but they passed that horizon when they started whoring themselves out to the idiots in the Tea Party.
And the fact that Wilkinson is trying to deny that is what makes that article so damn amusing.
sunshinesnark 