The Tea Party's budget

Over the weekend, the town of Ames, Iowa held a straw poll to see who would lead as the early contender for the Republican Presidential nomination in next year’s election. Out of the ten candidates who put their names forward, it was the fiery Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, who won the poll slightly ahead of Texas’s Ron Paul. Historically the result has been insignificant, in 2008 Mitt Romney won here only to lose the caucuses to Mike Huckabee and the eventual candidate John McCain. So as the electioneering and rhetoric begins are we still any closer to understanding what the Republicans will bring and whether they will make a challenge to President Obama.

The debacle over the American debt crisis was an embarrassment to the American economy leading to its credit downgrading from Triple A status to AA plus by the ratings agency Standard and Poor (S&P). It highlighted the toxic brinkmanship within Congress, particularly from the Republican controlled House of Representatives but also reflected on President Obama’s weakness to negotiate. Many critics say that the continuous sluggish growth, high unemployment and ineffectiveness of the stimulus package has meant that a well-packaged economic policy from the Republicans could pose a threat to Mr Obama in next year’s poll.

Yet the Republicans will continue to struggle until they are able to compensate over the power struggle held by the Tea Party. Vice-President Joe Biden allegedly called them ‘terrorists’ in the budget negotiations over the budget ceiling. Though strong in its meaning, perhaps he had a point. During the Presidency of George W. Bush, the budget ceiling rose on five separate occasions, two full- scale combat missions launched and Medicare extended, all at a great cost. Under Obama: operations have ended in Iraq and heightened in Afghanistan (partially in Libya), extensive reforms of healthcare to the poor, young and unemployed and at the same time no tax rises. Yet the Republicans see the raising of the debt ceiling as outrageous. America has a cultural issue of spending and consumerism that needs addressing, but the political wrestling over a possible default showed how unrealistic the Tea Party is behaving.

The Republicans will continue to sneer at the liberal elite that hold sway within the Democratic Party and enforce its tough talking on anti-abortion, gun control, evolution, loose interpretation of the Constitution and water fluoridisation, yet its fiscal and economic policies continue to fall out of line. Romney, the Mormon former Governor of Massachusetts, extended health care and introduced real term tax rises; yet this is a policy he isn’t talking about because it bears resemblance to that of Mr Obama’s. Mrs Bachmann, a trained tax attorney, has credentials but appears to be playing to the crowd that desperately loves her social conservatism and doppelganger, Sarah Palin. Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas (a la George W. Bush) and newcomer into the race, has cleared the State’s debt and has kept taxes low (though critics will point to high oil prices) though whether he can adapt his methods to the entire country is another question.

These polls have no real significance and ultimately play a role in raising funds for the candidates. The tough talking will continue to flourish between all candidates, yet until one of them can conceive a viable economic plan then it isn’t worth listening.