The Tea Party vs Entitlement Reform

Naturally, they don't really want any:

When it comes to cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the [40,000-member Tea Party "commission" on reducing the federal budget deficit] said visitors to the site were "more cautious," and "prefer reductions in peripheral elements," like tightening eligibility for Social Security disability payments and reducing subsidies to teaching hospitals.

Scott Galupo reiterates his previous criticisms:

The Tea Party was a cultural outburst … At this point, anyone who's serious about budget reform needs to ignore the Tea Party. Just pretend it never existed. It can't help you. Its purported concern for budgetary balance was never more than tangentially connected to fiscal reality.

Which is something I've been saying for a very long time. The Tea Party is the Christianist faction in the GOP rebranding itself. The idea that these people actually want to slash Medicare is a fantasy only the Village embraces, because it prefers phony "balance" to the truth.