I Think the Tea Party is Dangerous for World Markets

One thing this whole budget default and government shutdown mess has taught me is that the Tea Party cannot be trusted going forward. With all of the talk of a debt default being good for the world economy and Ted Cruz's filibuster kabuki they have lost me as a supporter.

They pretty much put the GOP in a box canyon that they couldn't fight out of. Shut the government down to defund, destroy, delay Obamacare? Sounds like an interesting idea but it doesn't come close to a plan to " just let Obamacare fail on its own" and make changes to the worst parts. Instead of burning down the house remodel it. They pretty much shut down the government for a lost cause.

The GOP had a goldmine of sentiment if the press would have focused on how badly Obamacare was rolled out. There could have been endless stories about the website crashing, people not getting coverage, companies paying through the nose, or people having their healthcare costs triple. Instead we had government shutdown stories about how park rangers blocked WW2 vets from getting into an open air memorial and stopping people from looking at Mr. Rushmore. The Tea Party had the news media focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time. We even have the idea now that the government shutdown is what screwed up the Obamacare roll-out. That isn't true but it is very easy to make that point.

Then we come to the debt default. That would have been a man-made catastrophe that could have put us into a depression. We had Tea Party crazies talking about letting us default so we can "get spending under control." Getting spending down to a manageable size is a laudable goal but trying to enact it via brinksmanship is just idiotic. You don't govern via threats. You win elections and get things passed with a majority or do some horse trading with the other side. Compromise instead of catastrophe.

The Tea Party would have been perfectly happy to have us default on our debt and have the county go into a depression for their asinine goals. If they had it their way they would have seen a 1200 point drop on the market on Friday. So that means I cannot trust them with my 401K and my portfolio. If I can't trust them with my money (which is the bedrock tenet of the GOP that I have known since I was a kid) then I cannot trust them to do anything else.

So I am going to give what little money I have budgeted for campaign contributions to moderate, pro-business, pro-market GOP members that I hope will be fiscally sound. The Tea Party as it stands now is trying to hurt me in the pocketbook like the Dems usually do. I can't support that kind of stupidity anymore. If Ted Cruz gets the nomination I will vote ABC (anybody but Cruz.)