If there were no tea party there would have been no cuts in spending at all. It would not even have been looked at. The debt ceiling would have been passed in some random vote, would have been talked about over 1 news cycle and we'd be going on like we were. And it's entirely possible we'd have tax increases with those zero dollars of spending cuts.

You are very much correct Owl, it does take two to have an argument. But does anyone here really think, had the tea party not come into being, that Obama and the dems would be looking to cut ANYTHING other than defense spending?

You can raise additional revenue by broadening the tax base. When 50% of the country pays no income tax at all, there's certainly room there to gain extra revenue.

I've said it before, you could double the taxes for everyone and you'd still have a 400 billion dollar budget deficit. Think about that! In such a case is taxing rich REALLY the answer?