Questions for Tea Baggers

For the last several months I've been chuckling at the Tea Party crowd. I can't help it--they're so angry and so sincere but usually so ill-informed that they seem positively silly.

Most of the Tea Baggers are absolutely livid over the national debt, but they were never angry before January 2009. Why did they become so angry then? A lot of them say that FoxNews "opened their eyes." And I believe that, because FoxNews acted like the national debt didn't exist between January 2001 and January 2009.

Along with their alarm over the size of the national debt, Tea Baggers are apoplectic about the rate of spending. Again, spending didn't seem to concern them before the current president was sworn in. So they're very concerned about the spending in "Obamacare," even though they didn't raise a fuss in 2003 when a Republican Congress passed Medicare Part D.

Sigh.

Finally, driven in part by their concern that "Obamacare" flies in the face of the United States Constitution, Tea Baggers want us to return to the "constitutional basics." Got it?

All those concerns have the Tea Bag crowd angry. They're really angry. And they want their country back. Okay, but I have some questions for them. I'd like to know specifically what they plan to do with their country once they get it back. After all, I live here too.

So, for any Tea Baggers who care to answer, what exactly do you mean by returning to the basics of the Constitution? Do you want to go back to the 13 original states? Can you name the 13 original states? Hint: Florida wasn't one of them.

Would you favor the repeal of the 17th amendment to the Constitution? That's the one that gave us direct election of U.S. Senators--before that amendment, state legislators picked the Senate's members.

What about the 19th amendment? That's the one that gave women the right to vote. A return to constitutional basics would mean that white land owners are the only Americans who could vote.

You want to cut back on "runaway spending," so what spending would you cut? Social Security? Medicare? Highway and other transportation spending (including federal subsidies for airports?)? Weapons programs that the Pentagon doesn't want, even if they provide jobs in Republican districts?

Would you get rid of federal departments and agencies in your quest to cut spending? Which ones? The Department of Education is a favorite target--what about the Department of Labor? Agriculture? Energy? How about the Environmental Protection Agency?

I'm asking these questions because the Tea Bagger crowd has gotten a pass from the media on all of them. Nobody has pressed for specifics on what the Tea Baggers would actually do if they got control of government. All we've heard is "anger" and "constitution."

Well, I'm angry. And I demand answers. Anyone care to step up?