Conservative groups say no to spending extension
(CNN) - A major national Tea Party organization is joining other conservative groups in calling for Republican lawmakers in Congress to vote against a three week extension to fund the federal government and prevent a government shutdown.
Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, a national Tea Party organization that's based in Tennessee, Monday urged his group's members to "call, fax, email and tweet to your congressman and to Speaker Boehner today. We can stop this, if we act!"
Phillips asks Tea Party Nation members to tell their lawmakers "not pass a continuing resolution that does not include legislation defunding Obamacare and Planned Parenthood. We should remind them, for us, this is not negotiable."
Phillips founded Tea Party Nation in 2009. The group runs a social networking site with what it says are around 40,000 members. The group is best known for holding the first National Tea Party convention, in Nashville, Tennessee in February 2010. The convention came under criticism by others in the movement because of Tea Party Nation's for profit status at the time.
Friday three leading conservative organizations, the Club for Growth, the Family Research Council, and Heritage Action, teamed up to make clear their opposition to any funding extension, and said they'll be keeping count of how lawmakers vote on the bill.
Both the House and Senate are expected this week to pass another three week extension in government funding, which would give Congress until April 8 to either reach a deal for the rest of fiscal year 2011, which ends September 30, or pass another extension to avoid a federal government shutdown.
President Barack Obama and congressional leaders all say that no one wants a shutdown, but the parties remain far apart on how to approach both the immediate need to authorize government spending for the next six months and the long-term need for budget reforms that reduce the deficit and national debt.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other GOP leaders in the chamber are under pressure by the scores of freshman Republicans elected last year with the support of the tea party movement to increase budget cuts and not compromise with congressional Democrats.
–CNN's Tom Cohen contributed to this report
Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @PsteinhauserCNN
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Tea Party Nation would be more approrpriately named "We Want Americans to Die" – let's make sure that lower income women won't get annual pap smears, mammography, or good pre-natal care – let's make sure that people with pre-existing conditions can't afford to get health care. Or how about "We Want the U.S. Economy to Crash and Launch Another Great Depression" – let's make sure the U.S. defaults on its loan payments – let's bump up those unemployment numbers, because they're just not high enough – let's lay off more of the public sector work force – yeah, that's what we want!
Is anyone actually considering the cosequences of these proposals?
Arrrgh! The last time we had a federal shutdown in 1995 it cost taxpayers an extra 1.5 BILLION dollars! How is costing the American people AN EXTRA 1.5 BILLION dollars cutting spending? Can't all you politicians grow up and learn how to negotiate without a showdown at high noon??
This is exactly why I want NOTHING to do with the Tea Party. Why I can agree with them on some fiscal aspects(even why I think they are absolute bunch of hypocrites!) their social policies make me just plain sick to my stomach. They don't even understand all the good Planned Parenthood does. They focus on one single thing and then just plain out lie and say tax dollars are funding abortions. I am certainly NOT pro-abortion but I am definitely pro-choic. I just don't have the absolute arrogance that these folks have. One thing is certainly clear; they only care about children in the womb. They can care less about them out of the womb. They are somebody else's problem then.
You do know that of the government shuts down the military members will not be paid???? Let's add mote hardship to their already stressful lives..... These people really need to get their act together!!!!!!!
I hate to say it, but I totally agree!!! Congress needs to stop kicking the can on this issue.
Why don't you guys just shut the whole thing down. Then see how popular you are next election. Besides why concern yourselves with the people living on the edge, without jobs, without food. After all it's their own fault anyway, right.
So, the Tea Party is perfectly willing to let the taxpayers pay 75% (about 2M/year) towards health care premiums for
Congress who receive the best health care available in the United States, while 7M children have no health care benefits. ,
Almost half of Congress is made up of millionaires, many are from the Tea Party freshmen. They can afford their own
health care from their salaries. This is pocket change to them, yet, I have seen no evidence that they are willing to make
even the smallest sacrifice to lower the budget. And, "here they go again" with the threats.."...keeping count of how
lawmakers vote".. The accountability should have started the first year of the Bush Administration, but some blogger
doesn't want us to talk about Bush, "because that is the past". Well, the "past" has caught up with us and the
price is hefty. Buy your own health insurance, Congress, like the rest of us who are fortunate enough to afford it!
Shut it down BUT before you do
As Newt how well it worked for him!
The 40,000 member Tea Party Nation is dictating terms to the GOP
What a bunch of nutless wonders!