well still to come tonight the tea party in congress tonight look at the move that the brought numerous lawmakers to the scene ask if they're ready to take on their own party of sacred cows on strangle social security back in the summer. wealthy british style it's time to explain. the debt. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cars a report on our. welcome to the. lead to survive and speak see him good and don't think a lot more regenerative life support seems just from our own ways special exercise equipment fight stuff like in sync a logical prep keeps the strain off the brain during a. one dollar she updates here on r.g.p. we've got the future covered. there are the new kids on the political block the tea party helped elect numerous lawmakers to congress last november and now they're trying to flex their political muscle they claim to have solutions to many of our current economic woes of their ideas have caused some tea party supporters to go into hiding artie's into the sauce he has more. that i have a message a message from the sheeple already wa

their book is "mad as hell how the tea party movement is fundamentally remaking our two-party system." welcome, gentlemen. >> guest: great to be with you. >> host: we have a double author so we are going to be a little bit short. could you each get a two sentence description of the tea party movement is? >> guest: and often take a grass-roots movement that has been disrespected by people in the political class because fundamentally through a rejection of the political class, and i would say that it's a group of others about a quarter of the electorate that is basically saying we are fed up with washington with spending, we are fed up with taxing policies that don't reflect our values and we want to return to the core principles. >> host: house speaker nancy pelosi has said it isn't restaurants and all it is an astroturf movement founded by a few rich people. what you say to that? >> guest: the whole notion of the tea party movement attended washington that it was racist, it was astroturf. but what happened is frustration had been building for decades and was passed over the top by the

you're a tea party member? >> absolutely. >> let's get back to the subject, and i'm happy to do that. when you think about tim pawlenty, as norah pointed out, there is this psychographic divide within the republican coalition right now between working-class folks and the college-educated population. the thing that tim pawlenty said n whehe first announced his bid in 2002, andhe said something to the effect of, i've had a lot of doors slammed in my face and now it's time for me to kick some of them down. >> that's tea party talk. >> there's something powerful about that, about the idea of someone who's been doubted or questioned. chris: gloria, it's tampa bay, the republican convention, steaming september next year and all the tea party people in the audience are looking for excitement and tim pawlenty walks up to the podium, or mitt romney. do they want a barnburner as a candidate? >> i think they want to win. >> chris: do the tea party think they have won if they put pawlenty or mitt romney in the white house?

three sixty five tea party three sixty five and the project manager of b.p.a. now thanks so much for being here and i think now when i hear that the tea party is coming to town or tea party affiliated groups i'm not seeing you know hundreds of thousands of you protesting on the streets anymore what does that mean you're getting these back door private meetings with congress where you i mean when it comes to talking and having these meetings with legislators that we want to hold accountable we've evolved in the way we're doing things so dialogue actually works a lot better so we're setting up meetings public meetings we're inviting our tea partiers in to sit down with the congress members that we have got elected and really let them know that we still mean business and if they start varying away from what we elected them to do than we do they're going to start here in the noisy series meeting you will evolve that perhaps if you have some point the tea partiers or this uncivilized bunch of bumbling who knows the all over the place and now you're trying to mean bu

the tea party caucus claimed credit today for the g.o.p.'s new hard line on spending. >> we will do everything we can to cut wasteful government spending. >> reporter: they even see their influence in the president's state of the union address. >> if a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, i will veto it. >> did that come from his side of the party or did that come from the tea party? >> reporter: their assertiveness has caused heartburn for g.o.p. leaders like when congresswoman michele bachmann insisted on delivering a separate tea party response to the state of the union. and when tea party enthusiast, sarah palin, invoked a vulgar acronym, to describe the president's speech. >> his theme was the "w-t-f," you know, winning the future. and i thought, okay, that acronym, spot on. there are a lot of "w-t-f" moments throughout that speech. >> reporter: but friction between the republican party and the tea party doesn't trouble supporters who say that's the whole point. >> it's my goal to see that republicans listen to tea party activist

party made a deal with the double in the tea party? >> no. >> i am not being flippant. did the republican party make a deal with the devil with the tea party. they wanted these people to take over the house in november. >>they were with the tea party n the ov of tea party events. to do a deal with the tea party -- ithe difference is in ideolol purity. the tea party was ideological purity in the sense of constinell are up there to cut a deal were to work on getting legislation passed. it is a much stiffer reality. >> -- it is a much different reality. >> there's always a tension between what you have to do for your party to win the election and what you actually do when you are elected. a colleague was giving a speech in 2 global warming and dealing with the problem. the was a very intelligent and well informed person. this is going to be used to torment and torture him. this is a very difficult thing for him to get past. ms. romney is a very effective executive. he would make a fine, center- right executive. he supported tarp. the is li

that again what do you think i mean we do way you look at it as a foreign policy expert is this tea party thing just an intra party thing for domestic politics that are going to pretty much go with with republicans have been doing that with foreign policy i mean there's enough on the domestic agenda. in the main i think that's right and let's face it their core issues are domestic in nature and they they do not have a defined foreign policy and i and i would not automatically assume that they are neo conservatives you know a big part of the neo conservative ideology was to project american power and to get involved in foreign wars i sort of sense from them more of an isolationist bent you know don't spend this money you know taxpayers' money on foreign wars that don't get us anywhere so i could see that being a point of divisiveness within that group and maybe that's why the they don't talk about it let me add that part of the extreme feelings that people have and the extreme politics in the us i think has a little bit to do with the fact that we have ten percent unemployment and i think

there is no tea party as sort of one organization. it's sort of a hide ra with different parts and moving pieces and i don't think every tea partier would agree with every other on every particular issue. i wouldn't set them aside from the republican party but the point that you brought up is i think illsstrative 06 why there is a tea party. you said after the tea party movement is helping the republican party get back to its core values after more mainstream leaders, more establishment leaders had strayed a bit. i think that's the exact right point. this is one faction of the republican party rising up and attempting to take over the larger party. so good point there. as to whether or not michael steele should get credit for the republican wins in november, there are a number of different organizations around washington. the national republican congressional committee, the republican governor's association, the national republican senate torle committee that's in charge of electing senate candidates, all of these organizations have ra

i want to thank the tea party express and tea party h.d. for inviting me to speak this evening i am here at their request and not to compete with the official republican remarks the tea party is a dynamic force for good in our national conversation and it's an honor for me to speak with you to you. did you notice something wrong there the michelle was looking at the wrong camera it appears for six and a half minutes she had absolutely no clue what camera she was supposed to be looking at turns out she was looking at the camera the tea party provided for the speech not the camera the news networks use for the address so basically the tea party offered up michele bachmann's response whether they didn't offer up the pool feed for the networks whoever put this tea party response together should absolutely be fired you made the congresswoman look crazier than she already is which i mean let's just say it she's pretty crazy and michelle went on to spout off about spending unemployment how the tea party is good and obama's bad and then she brought

>> the tea party was born because of the economy.nomy is probably the worst it's ever been except for maybe the great depression. the tea party will disappear as soon as the economy gets better and the economy is getting better all the time. and i don't think the tea party had the vigor and support people thought it would. a couple of them won. most of them lost. >> that's a pretty newsy prick, that the tea party is not here to stay. it will go way once the economy improves? >> that's true. nothing original with me, but that's how i feel about it. what the election showed me is that we had a terrible economy and that's where the tea party came from. and, number two, the american people want us to work together. that's what i took back from this election. >> you talked about the american people wanting you to work together. matter of fact, right after the election, you said more than 30 times that that message was work together, work together. and yet just this past week, your spokesman said -- representative cantor from virginia in t

or is it your role as chair to prevent a third party splinter tea party nominee? well, you know, i believe in our two-party system. obviously this is a great democracy and i think that all views ought to be brought together. i think it's the job of the republican national committee chairman to bring people together and to listen and to dialogue and come to some level of consensus moving forward. sometimes in our democracy and our political system, that's possible. sometimes it's not. i'm going to try very hard to get all the support we possibly can garner from the new and existing coalition groups that i would consider a part of this conservative movement to support our republican nominee, whoever he or she may be and i think we're going to have a great opportunity in the coming year, year and a half, to showcase our nominees for president out there. and i know that this grassroots movement, whether you call it tea party, patriot, whatever it might be, is going to play a major role in this. >> you talked a lot about fundraising and the importance that it's going t

of religious conservatives that were supportive of the tea party. when you get to issues like immigration or some of the other issues involving a social safety net for the poor, evangelicals don't always line up as economic conservatives. and so while they might be hoping for some action on abortion or maybe even some of the gay marriage type issues, i don't know that that's going to come up in congress, but i'm going to be watching some of the economic issues that do have some moral implications to see how much evangelicals, and some catholics who were supportive of the tea party where they come down. >> right, and there are a lot of moral issues that a lot of religious groups care about. and so i think what you're going to have is maybe a different set than what we've seen in the last couple years. whereas under the democratic congress we were talking about moral issues like the environment and the minimum wage increase and things like that, you're probably not going to see as much of that with a republican house. instead, you'll have issues that

>> the presidential candidates are appealing to tea party of the tea party. now a tea party establisinent hm washington. most of those tea party members, by the way, are going to vote against the debt ceiling compromise, but the trick will be touset j gt enough republicans to vote for it to pass it. chris: so there will be a divide. >> there will be. >> i think there will be a divide. in the primary season, you run right. that's an interesting conundrum for mitt romney. >> how will the eventual nominee come back to the center after he spent a lot of time bashing washington? >> there absolutely will be a divide, probably a good thing for the 2012 presidential nominee. they don't want to be tied -- the american people don't like the republican people in congress. chris: it's going to be hot a week in tampa, florida. howard, katty, cynthia, and nora. before we get -- go, a word about sargent shriver. he died this week. he began the peace corps. i want to pay tribute to this great man's leadership and vision. one great american, sargent shriver. one great america

this is the beginning of the process as relates to the tea party. one of the reasons marco rubio did so well in 2010 is because he articulate the message very well. christine o'donnell did not. both the party candidates, both with the same message, but marco was able to explain some common- sense items. for example, read the bill. read the congressional bill, cite the constitutional authority in the bill, term limits, balanced budget amendment, line 10 people up on the street, these are common- sense principles. the point is this -- the tea party message is one that can resonate, but it needs the bite messenger. we saw a couple of messengers -- needs the right messenger. we saw couple people to my people to convince independence to come on to their side. >> we will come back to that. i want to comment on another point -- i have heard two or three references and nobody has said it and we're going to wrestle with that, i heard two or three references to policies or lack thereof we have been subjected to in the first two years of president obama's first

this is the beginning of the process as relates to the tea party. one of the reasons marco rubio did so well in 2010 is because he articulate the message very well. christine o'donnell did not. both the party candidates, both with the same message, but marco was able to explain some common- sense items. for example, read the bill. read the congressional bill, cite the constitutional authority in the bill, term limits, balanced budget amendment, line 10 people up on the street, these are common- sense principles. the point is this -- the tea party message is one that can resonate, but it needs the bite messenger. we saw a couple of messengers -- needs the right messenger. we saw couple people to my people to convince independence to come on to their side. >> we will come back to that. i want to comment on another point -- i have heard two or three references and nobody has said it and we're going to wrestle with that, i heard two or three references to policies or lack thereof we have been subjected to in the first two years of president obama's first

all in all, i have support of tea party people. i do have the support of many of the leaders of the tea party. and i don't think there is a tea party spokesman that speaks for everyone. but i have a good relationship with the tea party. and yes, there are people that think that maybe i fought too hard for texas in spending areas. but i think i'm elected to support my state. and i have supported every spending cut. every overall spending cut. and i think we're going to have to be doing a lot more of that in the next few weeks, because we all agree -- and i didn't support the stimulus. i think that was a -- way too much spending. we all agree now, it must be cut. >> let me ask you again about this idea of centrists or moderates. or at least people who can work across party lines. there was a collective wail of sadness when you all decided not to seek re-election. is that idea of working across party lines also endangered and possibly extinct with you leaving? how many more will be left? >> i hope it's not extinct. i thing part of the

there is no tea party as sort of one organization. it's sort of a hide ra with different parts and moving pieces and i don't think every tea partier would agree with every other on every particular issue. i wouldn't set them aside from the republican party but the point that you brought up is i think illsstrative 06 why there is a tea party. you said after the tea party movement is helping the republican party get back to its core values after more mainstream leaders, more establishment leaders had strayed a bit. i think that's the exact right point. this is one faction of the republican party rising up and attempting to take over the larger party. so good point there. as to whether or not michael steele should get credit for the republican wins in november, there are a number of different organizations around washington. the national republican congressional committee, the republican governor's association, the national republican senate torle committee that's in charge of electing senate candidates, all of these organizations have ra

. >> there is two tea parties going on. one is 25% of the population and there is the very small minority that come to the rallies and i believe they are an entirely separate group. the ones who come to the rallies are themselves a tiny minority of a significant part of the population and there is some minority of those who are overtly racist. you might not have seen them but i've seen them and there is that element and that's what, we in the media -- i go to a rally, i look around stand i see a photograph, as i did, making a comparison to the health care, i'm actually going to focus on that and not on the 99% of people who were perfectly calm and reasonable. that's what i would do in the media. the absolute vast majority of people in the tea party movement are just unhappy about the economy and angry that the government is not doing anything and are good and decent people, but there is no way around it. they are going to be tarred -- tavis: all of this conversation leads me to you specifically, arianna. the tea party, we h

she represents a tea party-- depending on who you talk to, there's from 40 to 50 members of the tea party, you got all these people who got elected, beat mainstream republicans. these republicans, the mainstream republicans, are scared to death of these tea party people. they don't know what to do with them, how to handle them. that's one reason they're so vague about what they're going to do. they don't want to say. not only because they don't want to tip their hand to the white house, i don't think they want the tea party folks to know because they don't know what their response is going to be. >> couric: and they don't want to look like a house divided in the party itself. >> well, i mean, they've just got to figure out... they are a house divided. i mean, the president tonight is going to be talking to three parties: republicans, democrats, and the tea party. and we've never kind of had that here before. >> couric: he'll also be talking to some independents. john, isn't part of the president's goal tonight winning back those independents who elected him and then abandoned him in the m

when the tea party said we're going to take our country back, from whom? [laughter] [applause] seriously. this rant all the time. we are taking this country back. >> we're taking our country back to constitutional view of what they believe the constitution requires or what it says. it is not take our country back in terms of tax some heat and let's go. that is not what this is about. getting back to a point you made earlier, dr. west. there is a danger in saying, using the race as a word, you were saying there was an element of racism to the tea party. i can tell you that inherent in that is a dismissive attitude towards the tea party. it is basically trying to not justify its existence and power in this country. >> i am concerned about the truth. >> we record the audio. i can go back to that and listen. i am looking around the corner. i am looking around the crowd. i have to tell you, it is not there. >> how many black folk are there here? black folk are very intelligent. we get a sense of what is going on. [laughter] [applause] >> there is people i talk

and seismic, of course, because of the tea party energy, in part. and as we told you yesterday, the distant tea party thunder has now arrived in congress. and we met a lot of the 87 republican freshmen, half of them are from the tea party, yesterday, as we made our way across the capitol. and we gathered ten brand new members of congress together to mark this moment, after the fiery rhetoric of the campaign. this is the day they have to start delivering. here they are. the beltway version of a motorcycle gang, riding in on a wave of taxpayer and tea party discontent. and now, it's their turn. i just want to go around each of you and ask you to give me the one word that best expresses what you felt when you walked in, knowing you were here. >> humility. >> determined. >> the imminence of the problems. >> expensive. >> reporter: you mean, as in -- >> washington is expensive. it costs the american people a lot of money. >> i'd say humility. >> reporter: but what about congressman brooks who fiercely attacked the former speaker, nancy pelosi? >> what is

one has to recognize the independent nature of this patriot group, tea party, grassroots movement out there. they must be engaged. they are always welcome to have a seat at the table to talk about candidates, to talk about policy, off to talk about how we win elections. i think they differ vastly from state to state, and from community to community. but i applaud their efforts and they are welcome to be a part as we go forward toward winning the white house in 2012. >> would you welcome a tea party presidential campaign? or is it your role is chaired to prevent a splinter nominee? >> i believe in our to-party system. this is a great democracy and i think that all views ought to be brought together. it is the job of the republican national committee chairman to bring people together. and to listen and to dialogue and to come to some level of consensus moving forward. sometime in our democracy, that as possible. sometimes it is not. i will try very hard to get all the support possibly can garnered from the new and existing coalition groups that i would consider a part of this conservati

this is the beginning of the process as relates to the tea party. e of the reasons marco rubio did so well in 2010 is because he articulate the message very well. christine o'donnell did not. both the party candidates, both with the same message, but marco was able to explain some common- sense items. for example, read the bill. read the congressional bill, cite the constitutional authority in the bill, term limits, balanced budget amendment, line 10 people up on the street, these a common- sense principles. the point is this -- the tea party message is one that can resonate, but it needs the bite messenger. we saw a couple of messengers -- needs the right messenger. we saw couple people to my people to convince independence to come on to their side. >> we will come back to that. i want to comment on another point -- i have heard two or three references and nobody has said it and we're going to wrestle with that, i heard two or three references to policies or lack thereof we have been subjected to in the first two years of president obama's first ter

. >> -- the tea party's going to get co-opt whd they come to washington. you think that's going to happen? >> you know who was there? at least 12 of the tea partiers there with lobbyists circling like sharks. the city is corrupting. people go there to change that city. time and time again, they get changed by that city. it's interesting to see what happens. >> i heard you want to not only for president but prime minister of israel. >> it's a two-fer. >> i thought for sure you already were. >> you know what makes me different? >> where do we start? >> what makes me different as a candidate. i just want solutions. i don't want to hear about whose fault it is anymore. i think that's what most americans feel today. >> how would you rule? >> we have to get together over this huge chasm these two sides pulled us apart. >> i had a bumper crop of crowbars this year. >> what? >> i heard you -- >> seriously, like you said, we want results. i think we differ on what the results are and how we get 'em obviously. >> are you a big supporter of obama? >> i'm a supporter o

>> well, as someone who came from the tea party, i can tell you that the tea party is a staying force. it's a force that is critical of both republicans and democrats. and wants them to do something about the deficit. you know, they say they're worried about what will happen if we don't raise the debt ceiling. we are worried about $14 trillion deficit. we're worried that it's unsustainable and threatens the foundation of our economy. i don't think it will betipering at the edges here. we have to have -- i don't think it will be tinkering at the edges. we have to force washington to balance the budget and we need to link it to the debt ceiling because strategically it will allow us to get reforms that we need, because the votes will be there to raise the debt ceiling. but let's make sure that if they raise the debt ceiling, they fix some of the budgetary problems we have. >> bret: senator coons, last question for you. you were critical of wall street's business practices in your campaign. you called wall street banks reckless, saying wall street greed damaged american families. in ligh

as so many tea party members arrive, the beginning of one era, the end of another. for the first time since 1947, there will be no kennedys in washington. >> the sun has set on the kennedy era. when congress reconvened, it will be the first time in 64 years there has not been a kennedy in office. >> i think it's sad. where think we need a kennedy. >> the last cepied, patrick, congressman from rhode island, has left the building. >> i will not be a candidate for re-election. >> his father, edwrtd kennedy, died in 2009. the new frontier on capitol hill has a distinctly republican flavor. replacing the kennedys as the only father/son team on the hill, ron paul and rahm paul. >> here, ted kennedy's office suite, a view of the capital that went to the man who won his massachusetts senate seat, republican scott brown, but there wasn't much chance a junior senator was going to hold on to that prime real estate for long. now he's getting kicked out by senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, bringing a new set of family photos to this walls. john kennedy marked his family

the tea party is part and parcel of this problem. they show up at rallies with signs depicting the guns. they show up at rallies actually carrying guns. this would have been unheard of to come to a presidential speech with a gun on you. i can say that there have been times when keith olbermann and has said something outrageous but he apologizes the next day. host: have we heard anything that the suspect has been said that political, and there's on -- that political commentators on ready or television have inspired this? caller: it is an assumption but it is a valuable one cents the person he attacked as a politician. he attacked her with a gun. that is being promoted by certain people who attend the tea party with a gun sights on the offices of legislators. they say we have to reload. michelle bachmann like to have her people locked and loaded. i cannot see how you can separate the best. he did not just anybody. he shot a politician. host: thank you for that opinion. here is a schedule where we are headed here on c-span. we will cont

some peoplthe very first meeting of the very first ever senate tea party. said it invited some 150 activists rallying usually outside the party. >> i was one the people outside screaming kill the bill, never felt like anyone was listening. >> that is why the tea party helped elect these three gop senators to bring them here. >> we can get there, we must get there and we will get there. >> hopefully because of the incredible debt that it's about to sink her country, that we can muster up enough votes to stop raising the debt ceiling. >> it was a festive atmosphere, constitution sign, but activists also made it clear they expect senators to deliver. >> we are here to hold them accountable >> , rep call toll was there try to keep activist involved for the next election. and for immediate legislative battles. >> we're going to say here is our plan, we want a balanced buzz budget. can you help us. jam most phone lines. >> still the party partner for her, all i have full senators joined the caucus. >> of the tea party also become storm sort of party run by politic

this fiscal mess we're in, starting with spending. >> it's interesting, because graham said the tea party last summer, he said they were unsustainable and would die out. clearly, seems to have changed his mind. >> yeah, something -- something must have been put into his tea. hey, i got a news flash for the tea party, and for the republicans in general, you're not going to get anywhere. nothing's going to happen. >> you don't think anything's going to get done? >> absolutely not. they can't do anything. they -- first of all, they don't have a veto -- enough members in the house to override a veto. and they don't have the senate. for them to get anything passed through the senate, they would -- playing by their old rules where 60 is the new 50 -- they need 17 democrats to come over to their -- sorry, 13, 13 democrats. right, they've got 47 now. so they'll need 13 democrats to start acting and voting like republicans. which, you know, i understand i wouldn't put it past a certain number of democrats to do that. but they won't get 13. so nothing's going to happen in the senate. they can do al

so as a result of that you will see a lot of tea party. don't know what it will be in the democratic party, the muslim party. i don't know what you'll see multiple parties and i think you'll see the rise in the next few years i've even third parties of people that are trying to figure out how to take the 21st century and make it work. a lot of the leaders, if you read, one of the magazines i just read talk about the baby boomers are now in early retirement so what would it look like for the busters, gen xers and millennials that are coming along? i think that there's a sense in texas that we feel because of the metropolitan areas in dallas fort worth, senator austin and houston, it's no longer much like people would perceive the statewide a. dallas-fort worth, 44% of population are new americans. new america. they are over 229 which is spoken indelicate 1975 there was one mosque. today there are 43 mosques in the metroplex. multiple tables. in my committee on, suburbs i think we have a lot. we have a jewish temple, churches, a synagogue. i

i think of it as an establishment wing of the party and tea party wing of the party. is going to be successful in the fall as well will have to be acceptable to both lanes. tea party movement is a powerful source of energy and if the republicans generally, republican nominee in particular, is not acceptable to that wing of the electorate, i would be worried about a third-party movement that could undermine the center right coalition. >> do you think sarah palin, if she were the nominee, could carry a state like pennsylvania? >> i think it is possible. we went into this election cycle with 1.2 million voter registration deficit and with a republican brand that was in a bad way and i still won this election. i think the electorate wants a return of economic growth, wants serious fiscal discipline. if they believe they've got a candidate that can deliver on those things, it's possible. >> how about reporting, e.j. dionne, the president's ambassador to china, seen here with the president. he has been the ambassador to china but in this interview does not rule out the poss

with the liberal republic long gone, dogmatic tea party supporters are now expunging conservative legislatorso are not conservative enough. they are continuing to push the party even further into the sooty, smoky fire of paranoid extremism. it's worth noting that, you know, in the previous section i mentioned that orrin hatch was one of the original new right insurgents, conservative insurgents. he was one of the people that paul wyrek got in. and as soon as the election were over, eric erickson of political blog red state.com who's been one of the tea party voices, made up a list of people he wanted to purge in 2012, and one of those on the list was orrin hatch. so it shows you how far we've come. over the years political analysis have offered various explanations for the rightward drift of the gop be. some point to nationwide disenchantment with large social programs, some point to the cultural shifts of the '60s. most of these explanations place the impotence on the mood of the american electorate suggesting that liberal and moderate republicans died out because they failed to adapt to the

. >> the problem i think with some of the tea parties is that you talk to a tea party group here and you talk to a tea party group there and they may have different goals, specific individual to their groups. >> couric: outnumbered almost ten to one, freshman democrats like alabama's terri sewell face their own challenges. is it daunting to come into office at a time when republicans are so ascendant? >> it doesn't really change our mission and our job. i think that the folks that elected us sent us here to do their bidding. irrespective of who is in the majority, they really want us to focus on their issues. >> couric: republicans say high on their priority list is deficit reduction. starting with major cuts in domestic spending this year. fiscally conservative freshmen say everything is fair game. >> let's take a look at the department of defense so we send a signal to those on the other side of the aisle that everything has to be at table. >> couric: but is there danger in your view that the ax will be too sharp, that the cuts will be too deep? >> i think if there's an opportunity

the tea party, there really is no tea party, but the tea party people seem to be getting stronger.d know that here, in virginia. i am wondering, and we now have the spending, what would it be like if we did not have the tea party? guest: without this massive constituency that rose up two years ago, we would be in a much more dire situation, not because the actual numbers have changed. what we have changed is the incentive structure. we brought in this question class. it is guys like senator rand paul, participants in the senate t. caucus. what we need to do is make sure that all of the community uprising we saw in the movement now translates into specific constituent support for specific proposals to cut the budget, cut spending, and take on government reform. those people do not typically show up in this process. host: here is the headline in "the usa today." the first meeting is scheduled for this morning. host: what is your reaction? guest: it is a good question, and it is a debate that has gone on. how do you best represent what is essentially a decentralized leader-less moveme