While I agree that the Tea Parties have gained much momentum during the health care debate. I believe that the Tea Parties grew out of a direct result of the ‘doubling down’ on the deficit that was committed by the Obama Administration early on in his Presidency.

Remember several things came together that resulted in the perfect storm that was the 2008 General Election.

Many of us conservatives were disheartened over the profligate spending of the Bush Administration. Couple that with the consolidation of Executive Power overseen by the Bush Administration due to the War on Terror. We felt in our core that this wasn’t conservatism; this was the beginnings of statism.

The final straw was the Troubled Asset Relief Program hatched in the last days of Bush’s second term. Many of us felt we were no longer talking about small government and individual liberty versus big government and centralized control. We found ourselves retreating to one last pitiful rationale in the recent election: That republicans could deliver left-wing statist programs more effectively than the democrats could. Couple that with two election cycles of democrats running stealth candidates as ‘fiscal conservatives’ in cherry-picked districts: This is how the progressives ended up with control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

TARP added $700 billion to the debt, bringing the eight year total under Bush to $1.4 trillion. Little did anyone know that this was just the initial ‘buy-in’ that would be required in order to see the hand Obama wanted to play. First there was the last $350 billion of TARP. Then the $787 billion Stimulus; which has shown little sign of actually working and mostly remains unspent to this day. Add to that a $350 billion Omnibudsman Package. That’s $1.4 trillion! Obama had ‘doubled down’ on the accumulated eight year debt created by Bush! And that was done in what; twelve weeks!

That was when, and why, the idea of the Tea Parties first began. They were originally contrived as a method to protest the lack of fiscal discipline being demonstrated in the face of recession by this administration, and timed to happen on April 15th. Health care just pushed the number a trillion dollars higher; adding more fuel to the fire, and giving us all another reason to keep our anger up. I don’t know that the health care plan spawned the Tea Parties as much as the health care plan gave good reason to continue the format.

The Tea Parties go way beyond Obama or Healthcare reform. We have three tenents. 1. Fiscal responsibility. 2. Limited Government 3. Free Market.

Pretty simple. Uphold the constitution or be voted out of office. We are on a RINO hunt!

A couple of other things to consider on health care reform are being able to purchase insurance across state borders and tort reform (I know you didn’t mean to overlook that one due to your profession;)

We will not be going away when this bill is passed or killed. As a participant in the largest tea party thus far this past saturday in the March on Washington 9-12 event, I have to agree with Michelle Obama. For the first time in my adult life, I am proud to be an american. Ok, so it wasn’t the first time but the patriotism was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. There was so much positive energy. We were americans who want our country back. There was so much civility, the Capital Police where shocked at how calm the event was especially considering our size. More than one officer told us that they estimated 1.2 million attendees. The spirit of public virtue is alive and will now be translated into backing the most virtuous candidates for November 2010, the next American Revolution. Can you digg it?