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A pity party, not a tea party - Tribune-Review

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Unfortunately, instead of recognizing victory and unifying to ensure the best conservative ideas are embraced, certain conservative leaders, particularly from the elitist D.C. segment, have decided to line up a good ol circular firing squad.

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Hours before President Trump took to the stage for his home run speech to the Joint Session of Congress, we heard cheap shots at him about budget rumors since no presidential budget has been submitted yet. Republican Senators were asserting that any budget that included desperately needed cuts to the bloated State Department would be dead on arrival.

They are joined by a group we can only term as Conservative Bubble Boys and Girls. Theyre a small, but vocal group of entrenched politicos who have clung to the conservative label as a way to stay relevant in the D.C. bubble.

Regrettably, they spend far too much of their time finding fault with what other conservatives are doing. Theyve been out of touch for so long, it seems like they dont really know whose team theyre on.

Following President Trumps speech on Tuesday, I released the following statement:

Since 2012, Tea Party Express has hosted the official Tea Party response to the Presidents address. Last night was the first night that our address wasnt necessary. Not because the ideas of limited government and economic growth have fallen out of vogue because they surely havent but because that speech was delivered on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by the President of the United States.

President Trump delivered an eloquent address, where he clearly and deliberately laid out his conservative vision for America. It should now be clear to everyone that the Tea Party movement is more than rallies and protests. We have arrived in D.C., through our elected representatives, to fulfill our mission and finally rein in government.

But instead of covering this milestone for the conservative movement, the Bubble Boys and Girls used it to write the Tea Partys obituary, claiming that we were dead because we somehow embraced a big government agenda void of a conservative vision. Huh?

The Weekly Standard published the piece RIP, Tea Party: 2009-2017, and claimed, The anti-establishment movement embraces big government. Why? Because they claim the President did not outline specific budget cuts, but only talked about spending priorities. Thus, they concludebefore a single piece of legislation is introducedthat he is a big government conservative.

Then, a senior editor at National Review asserted, Maybe Im crazy, but Id bet that if President Obama (or a President Jeb Bush) had made a similar speech with similar spending commitments and no explanation of how to pay for them, the Tea Party Express would have mustered enough objections to respond.

Yes, the National Review writer is right. We had no confidence that Barack Obama was going to rein in the size and cost of government; we would have proudly stood with Jeb Bush if he had a Trump-like cabinet. We would have given a lot of room to a President who had appointed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, or Scott Pruitt to the EPA or Tom Price to head up HHS.

Furthermore, both authors oddly marginalized the Presidents pro-growth agenda, which includes historic tax cuts, massive regulatory reform, and bold education changes that will affect millions of children across the nation. And that doesnt even touch the Administrations unequivocal commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare. These are major conservative prioritiesand priorities that have defined the Tea Party movementbut the Bubble Boys and Girls wont let facts get in the way of an opportunity to bash the President.

Admittedly, there are plenty of details to work through as the Administration and Congress prepare to honor the promises they made to voters. And none of us are under any illusion that well be happy with 100 percent of every decision made. If the President or Congress deviates from the will of the voters, we should call them outI know that Tea Party Express will.

However, instead of impulsively attacking President Trump and fellow conservatives, lets try to keep our powder dry and wait for there to be a fight. Maybe that way we will be ready and united to actually win some of the impending battles and deliver the best solutions for conservatives.

Taylor Budowich is the executive director of Tea Party Express, the nations largest Tea Party political action committee.

Read more:
Tea Party Express Executive Director: Conservative Bubble Boys Risk Squandering an Historic Opportunity - Breitbart News

On Tuesday, the sometimes ferocious Tea Party pressure group Freedomworks announced that it would be doing a six-figure ad buy against "Obamacare Lite," its pejorative for the bill that is winding its way through the House of Representatives to repeal and replace Obamacare.

On Wednesday, Freedomworks issued a statement by its president Adam Brandon which did not mention the ad buy but rather said that the group "believe[s] we can negotiate" on provisions that many Tea Party conservatives find troubling, "address them in a substantive way, and get to 'yes' on this bill."

In fact, the amended bill's passage would "throw Obamacare in the dustbin of history."

What happened to get from commercials against it to grabbing that broom for some historical sweeping?

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President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with Brandon along with several other heads of Tea Party and conservative groups on Wednesday (as well as some hold-out lawmakers) and apparently put on a convincing performance.

"President Trump tweeted that House Republican leadership's healthcare bill was 'out for review and negotiation.' [Following that w]e had a constructive conversation," Brandon explained.

The Freedomworks president first set out points of agreement and praise.

"The president and we agree that we should repeal and replace Obamacare. There are aspects of the bill we like, such as the expansion of health savings accounts and repeal of most of Obamacare's taxes," he said.

He followed that up with the problems the group has with the bill, then expressed strong confidence that they will be got over and that Obamacare will be repealed using the House bill as a jumping off point.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Crowley claimed in a Fox News interview that her plagiarism scandal was a ginned up controversy.

03/09/17 8:50 AM

"We shared our concerns with the bill [with President Trump]," Brandon said.

The group's ongoing problems shared with the president include "the refundable tax credit, continued enrollment under Medicaid expansion, the likelihood of a 'doc fix' scenario of Medicaid expansion as it winds down in 2020, the continuous coverage language, and remaining regulations in the bill," he warned, but this time he wasn't threatening an ad blitz.

Freedomworks' president finished by effusing, "This is the beginning of the process to repeal and replace Obamacare and move to competitive free-market, patient-centered healthcare."

Continued here:
Trump is winning over Tea Party group on Obamacare replacement ... - Washington Examiner

President Trump courted leaders of organizations affiliated with the Tea Party movement on Wednesday evening, hoping to win their support of the recently proposed House GOP's healthcare plan to replace Obamacare.

Trump met with Club for Growth president David McIntosh, Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham, Americans for Prosperity president Tim Phillips, FreedomWorks president Adam Brandon and Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin.

The House Freedom Caucus comprised of the lower chamber's most conservative Republicans said earlier this week that it had concerns about the bill. One such member, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, on Tuesday said he is optimistic that congressional Republicans will be able to make improvements to the Obamacare replacement bill that was introduced on Monday.

"I think amidst the horse excrement we can find a pony around here somewhere," Gohmert said Tuesday afternoon during a House Freedom Caucus press conference. "And that's what we're gonna be looking to have. I think we'll have a racehorse as long as we get good amendments when we're done."

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Trump sits down with groups affiliated with Tea Party to sell them on healthcare bill - Washington Examiner

The IRS has told a federal court that they've recently identified almost 7,000 more documents that could contain information on how the agency targeted the tax-exempt applications of Tea Party organizations or other conservative political groups starting back in 2010, according to a court document.

But IRS in the document would not commit to a timeline for releasing the documents.

The revelation of thousands of unreleased documents was made in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that specializes in filing, and in many instances litigating, FOIA requests.

For Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, the admission from the IRS represents a significant breakthrough. "Our attorneys knew that there were more records to be searched but the Obama IRS ignored this issue for years," Fitton said in a press release.

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The IRS has never admitted that any high-level employees of the agency knew the targeting was taking place. But Lois Lerner, the IRS employee at the center of the scandal, did apologize for the actions, in response to what was later revealed to be a planted question during a question and answer session at a conference.

As part of the targeting, organizations with the words "tea party" or "patriots" in the name of the applications were singled out for tougher, more lengthy questioning about their activities. As a result, many of those groups were delayed by many months in receiving their tax-exempt designation from the IRS, slowing the organizations' ability to engage in political activity.

Judicial Watch's FOIA requests have continued to hold the agency's feet to the fire, even years after the events. In 2015, Judicial Watch released documents from a FOIA request that suggested the IRS targeted some of the donors of the groups who were put through the extra scrutiny.

Continue reading here:
IRS has 7000 unreleased documents related to conservative and Tea Party targeting - Washington Examiner