TPM's Evan McMorris-Santoro:
Tea Party Patriots Reject Tax Cut Deal, Call For It To Be Destroyed
It seems President Obama's deal with Republicans on tax cuts has done something few may have thought possible: united the most progressive wing of the Democratic party with the most conservative of the Republicans.
In an email dispatched just minutes ago, the national office of Tea Party Patriots -- the largest umbrella for grassroots tea party groups in the country -- is calling on its millions of members to bombard Republicans on Capitol Hill with pleas to shut down the tax cut deal which House Democrats rejected earlier today.
"'The Deal' or 'The Tax Deal' as it is becoming known around the country between President Obama and Congressional Leadership is problematic," TPP's national coordinator team writes in the message. "This is a deal that needs to be opposed."
The teapartiers objections to the deal focus largely on its spending provisions, about which they complain "There is at least $75 billion in new spending in the plan, agreed to by the GOP less than 5 weeks after the country fairly screamed 'Stop Spending Our Children's Money!'"
In addition to their opposition to the bill's extension of unemployment benefits and tax credits, they also cite procedural issues, characterizing the deal as a backroom deal and complaining that members are supporting it before having a chance to have read the legislation that emerges from the deal.
Arguably the teapartiers' most hilarious objection is with respect to estate taxes, which they claim this deal "revives." The real story: thanks to the way the Bush tax cuts were written, this year there is no estate tax. If nothing else changes, next year the estate tax reverts to its previous level of 55% on estates of more than $1 million. The tax cut deal would actually reduce that to 35% and only apply it to estates larger than $5 million.