Tea Party Response to State of the Union

The Tea Party Express announced that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will deliver her own response to the President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Typically, the party not in the White House delivers a rebuttal response after the State of the Union. Recent memorable responses have included Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's "Kenneth the Page" speech in February 2009. A year later, Virginia's governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, gave his "Hey, everybody, I wanna play dress-up!" speech. This year, the chosen Republican is Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), perhaps best known as the new Chairman of the House Budget Committee.

So why is Rep. Bachmann delivering her own response when her party has already designated Ryan for the job? It seems as if the Tea Party believes itself to be separated enough from the GOP where this move is warranted. I wanted to find a concrete set of Tea Party principles so I could try and educate myself on what Rep. Bachmann might say on Tuesday night.

The Tea Party Express website isn't a big help. A year-old Newsweek article says:

Under fiscal reform ... curtailing all earmarks (“regardless of the importance of the legislation”) and balancing the budget by ... sunsetting each and every federal program and “matching federal expenditures with federal revenues.” No exception, although one tiny caveat: no raising taxes. And ... restructure the tax code to sharply reduce personal and corporate tax rates without shifting the income-tax burden from one income bracket to another ...

Shifting to election reform ... it’s unfair that incumbents have the upper hand to finance campaigns with taxpayer money when events coincide with their public duties ... challengers should also get a weekly, federally funded town-hall meeting during the two months before each election. Once elected, lawmakers should be subject to term limits: eight years in the House and 12 years in the Senate. (Some tea partiers tell me the numbers should be higher, others say lower.) And last, to end gerrymandering, all House districts should be redrawn by an independent commission based on “democratic principles.”

This seems somewhat concrete, but admittedly it's a year old. After the election, the platform may look a little different.

For what it's worth, Wikipedia says, "Its platform is explicitly populist, and is generally recognized and conservative and Right-libertarian. It endorses reduced government spending, lower taxes, reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit, and adherence to an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution."

So, what does all this mean? First of all, I don't think that Bachmann will base her speech on much (if any) of what Obama says on Tuesday night. I think you'll hear some combination of the following talking points (prepare your drinking game accordingly):

• Federal spending is "out of control"
• During tough economic times, it is "irresponsible" to raise taxes
• A need to "reduce the deficit"
• "Keep government out of our lives"
• Repealing the "government takeover of health care"

Don't expect her to have specific solutions to the problems she brings up, though.