User:MBMadmirer/Tea Party Movement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tea Party movement is a populist,[1][2][3] conservative/libertarian[4][5] political movement in the United States that started during the 2008 Presidential Campaign cycle when the supporters of Presidential Candidate Texas Congressman Ron Paul held tea party rallies to promote his candidacy, one of the first being held in Austin,TX on December 16, 2007 and subsequently expanded throughout 2008 & 2009 into a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests.[6][7][8] The protests were partially in response to several Federal laws: the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,[9] the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,[10][11] and a series of healthcare reform bills.[12]
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/9.12_tea_party_in_DC.jpg/320px-9.12_tea_party_in_DC.jpg)
The name "Tea Party" echoes the Boston Tea Party, a 1773 incident when colonists destroyed British tea rather than paying what they considered a tax that violated their right to "No Taxation without Representation."[13] As of 2010, it is not a national political party, does not officially run Congressional candidates, and its name has not appeared on any ballots.[14]
According to pollster Scott Rasmussen, the bailouts of banks by the Bush and Obama administrations triggered the Tea Party’s rise. The interviewer adds that the movement's anger centers on two issues, quoting Rasmussen as saying, "They think federal spending, deficits and taxes are too high, and they think no one in Washington is listening to them, and that latter point is really, really important."[15] The movement has no central leadership but is a loose affiliation of smaller local groups.[16] The movement's primary concerns include, but are not limited to, cutting back the size of government,[17] lowering taxes,[18] reducing wasteful spending,[18] reducing the national debt and federal budget deficit,[17] and adherence to an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution.[19]