I shall discuss the recent votes on HR 37 Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act.
HR 37 would gut the Volcker Rule and other key parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. The vote failed, and was covered in this DKos diary http://www.dailykos.com/...
I reviewed the Tea Party Caucus log from Wikipedia as listed 2 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/.... I reviewed the roll call for HR 37 and find 45 Yea votes from the 50 Tea Party members in that list. Several of the 5 "missing" members have moved on from the House.
The Tea party caucus may be in disarray, and has lost some traction over the past 2 years, yet remains a real and dangerous faction.
My recollection of the Tea Party is that it rose to power in 2009 after the bailouts of banks by the Obama administration. I also understand that the Tea Party considers bailout and stimulus plans to be illegal.
The current Yea votes of House Tea Party members is strongly at odds with the irresponsible behavior and actions of banks and financial institutions that led to the financial meltdown in 2008, requiring bailouts, and then stoking "grassroots" anger resulting in the birth of the current Tea Party. The Tea Party was rapidly "astroturfed" by multiple well-funded right wing organizations. The current Tea Party is just another subset of Republicans beholden to Wall Street. They have turned their backs on the original grassroots anger over bailouts, and care not about Main Street.
I am aware that House Democrats are not without guilt on HR 37, but that is not the theme of this diary, and has been covered in this DKos diary http://www.dailykos.com/...
I understand that this diary is yet another anti-Tea Party rant. I read the recent diary
http://www.dailykos.com/.... IMHO, the Tea Party is one of the most destructive elements in American politics in my lifetime.