Thursday, March 31, 2011
WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Memo from Tea Party supporters to congressional Republicans: You better stand firm on your pledge to cut U.S. government spending to reduce the deficit. Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Steve King of Iowa are expected to rouse Tea Party activists during a rally Thursday outside the U.S. Capitol, while Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is expected to join participants he says are demanding "that Washington get serious about putting our fiscal house in order," Politico reported.
Leaders in the grassroots movement said their message is for both major political parties.
"It's absolutely equally aimed at both parties," Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler, who helped organize the protest, told Politico. "It takes responsibility equally for both parties to get this done."
Meckler reminded House Republicans they should remember to dance with the ones who brought them.
"Their responsibility is to lead," he said. "They've been granted a temporary shot at showing they can lead [the] country back to fiscal solvency, and we expect them to behave in a way that people want."
During the midterm elections, which led to the Republicans taking control of the House and cutting into the Democrats' majority in the Senate, GOP candidates ran on a pledge of $100 billion in spending reductions, and their supporters expect them to deliver, expressing little patience with the deliberate pace that comes with lawmaking in Washington, Politico reported.
Freshman Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas said he was "amazed at the snail's pace at which stuff moves in Washington. So I understand their [Tea Party activists] frustration and impatience, but I also see the other side of it -- that you have 100 people in the Senate to deal with and 435 people in the House of Representatives to deal with and at least one person in the White House to deal with."
Meanwhile, negotiations have started among congressional leaders and the White House on a budget bill. The current stop-gap funding measure keeping the government operating expires April 8.
Some Republicans downplayed the influence such a rally would have on a final budget agreement, Politico said.
Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette, an appropriations committee member close to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, said, "I don't think it has any effect one way or another."
Leaders in the grassroots movement said their message is for both major political parties.
"It's absolutely equally aimed at both parties," Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler, who helped organize the protest, told Politico. "It takes responsibility equally for both parties to get this done."
Meckler reminded House Republicans they should remember to dance with the ones who brought them.
"Their responsibility is to lead," he said. "They've been granted a temporary shot at showing they can lead [the] country back to fiscal solvency, and we expect them to behave in a way that people want."
During the midterm elections, which led to the Republicans taking control of the House and cutting into the Democrats' majority in the Senate, GOP candidates ran on a pledge of $100 billion in spending reductions, and their supporters expect them to deliver, expressing little patience with the deliberate pace that comes with lawmaking in Washington, Politico reported.
Freshman Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas said he was "amazed at the snail's pace at which stuff moves in Washington. So I understand their [Tea Party activists] frustration and impatience, but I also see the other side of it -- that you have 100 people in the Senate to deal with and 435 people in the House of Representatives to deal with and at least one person in the White House to deal with."
Meanwhile, negotiations have started among congressional leaders and the White House on a budget bill. The current stop-gap funding measure keeping the government operating expires April 8.
Some Republicans downplayed the influence such a rally would have on a final budget agreement, Politico said.
Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette, an appropriations committee member close to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, said, "I don't think it has any effect one way or another."
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