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MANKATO The leader of the tea party movement in south-central Minnesotawould like to see a little tolerance and patience from the political left toward their still-new president.

"We're in a divided country, but I'm hopeful," said Mankato attorney Andrew Johnson. "And I hope people give Trump a chance to demonstrate what he's capable of."

Johnson, who was heavily involved in the formation of the tea party movement locally and statewide, sees Donald Trump's victory as a culmination of that movement. While the organization hasn't been as active in recent years, the tea party's philosophy was still alive in the minds of supporters.

"The tea party mentality helped elect Trump as president," said Johnson, adding that the New York real estate developer deserves high marks for his efforts since Nov. 8. "I am impressed with his diligence prior to being sworn in and up to now. ... I suspect with his energy level, he's going to do a lot of things."

The rise of grass-roots organizing in opposition to Trump has been compared to the emergence of the tea party in the weeks after the federal government takeover by the Democrats in the 2008 election. Johnson, though, thinks opposition to Trump has been more radical and less tolerant than the tea party movement.

"The reactionary attitude, to me, is beyond the constitutional parameters of free speech," he said. "... I don't recall seeing any tea party mentality or reaction as offensive as I've seen reported now where they don't tolerate opposing viewpoints."

Attempting to maintain a focus on core principles is a challenge for any grass-roots movement, and it was sometimes difficult for the tea party. For Johnson, those principles could be boiled down to limited government, fiscal responsibility and support of free enterprise, but the movement also attracted social conservatives focused on opposition to abortion or gay marriage.

"I would listen to them and acknowledge them no matter what the viewpoint," he said. But then the former Blue Earth County commissioner would attempt to steer the message back to the group's basic beliefs.

Maintaining enthusiasm also was a challenge, something he blames partly on the tea party's portrayal by the media. After an energetic first couple of years, the local tea party's public activities were mainly centered around meetings featuring conservative speakers.

Johnson doesn't appear worried that the Indivisible movement or other left-leaning groups will grow to the size and strength of the tea party during its zenith in 2009 and 2010. Average Americans were attracted to the tea party, and Johnson thinks most will be repelled by the Trump opposition groups.

"I don't think the left is making a decent impression on the American public," he said.

These days Johnson's duties as a tea party leader are minimal. He participates in occasional webinars and periodically passes along an item of interest through the group's local email list.

"So we're still sort of active, but on a more subtle basis," he said. "But I don't think the tea party is gone. As demonstrated by our last election, a tea party mentality is still around."

And if the progressive version of the tea party becomes more publicly energetic in opposing Trump's agenda, Johnson said he might be inclined to try to call the former troops back to duty.

Originally posted here:
Tea party leader hopes Trump opponents will give president a chance - Mankato Free Press

News & Observer

Tea party holdouts may save Obamacare News & Observer Republicans have a plan to replace Obama's Affordable Care Act, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has some harsh critiques for it. But at the same time, conservative Republicans have some harsh critiques for the Congressional ... People in These 15 Cities Would Get Slammed by Trumpcare Cost IncreasesThe Cheat Sheet Poll: Majority prefer Obamacare to TrumpcareAOL Here We Go: Will Trump and Ryan Have the Votes on Healthcare Tomorrow?Townhall Congressional Budget Office all 709 news articles »

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Tea party holdouts may save Obamacare - News & Observer

Former conservative favoriteSharron Angle announced Tuesday she was running for Congress. Her latest political bid comesas tea party movement leaders say they are gearing up across the nation to fight mainstream Republicans in Congress and make sure President Donald Trump sees things their way.

Trump proved that America wants Constitutional, free-market conservatism, Anglesaid. The reality is the president can lead, but he cannot do it alone. In Congress, we contend with the unpredictable Republicans who support, or do not support, what the American people mandated on Election Day.

Anglewas embraced by the tea party in 2010 duringher unsuccessfulbid to unseat then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada. After losing to Reid, she ran for the Senate again in 2016, but lost theRepublican primary to U.S. Rep. Joe Heck by 50,000 votes. Trump also lost Nevada, but by a smaller margin ofabout 27,000 votes.

This time around, Angle is looking to unseatU.S. Rep. Mark Amodei,a Republican who served as Trumps Nevada state campaign chairman. It's unclear if he is running for re-election, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported Tuesday.

The tea party movement shook up national politics in 2009, forcing many Republicans in Congress to the right out of fear they would lose their seats to grassroots candidates such as Angle, who championed gun rights, mass deportations forundocumented immigrants and Christian values. At the time, 75 percent of tea party supporters were 45 or older, aNew York Times/CBS News poll found. Roughly89 percent were whiteand only 23 percent graduated from college.By the time tea party voters helped Republicans win back the House in 2010,about32 percentof the country backed the movement'sideas. That support dropped to 17 percent by 2015 as the tea party took a backseat in Washington.

"The tea party is less a new, independent movement than a reinvigoration, another manifestation, of the conservative movement. And it is something that weve seen strengthened in response to government overreach," a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation concluded last year.

But with Trump's surprise White House win in November, some tea party leaders are hoping to mount acomeback fortheir small-government platform. Tea party activistsholdinga rally against the Affordable Care Act last week on Capitol Hill were joined by Republican Sens. Rob Portmanof Ohio and Rand Paul of Kentucky, among others.

The battle is just beginning, said Paul, who won office duringthe 2010 tea party wave. They have to remember it was the tea party that put them in power, he added of lawmakers looking to replace the health care law.

The leader of the Tea Party Patriots worked this week to support Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Neil Gorsuch, as a Senate hearing probed his qualifications.

Our Tea Party Patriots are making phone calls and sending emails and letters to their senators from across the country,Jenny Beth Martin, author of the 2012 book "Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution," told Breitbart News.

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Is the Tea Party Back? After Trump, Sharron Angle and Other ... - Newsweek

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An obscure bureaucratic policy that allowed IRS officials totarget conservative and Tea Party tax exemption applicants during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns is still in place, meaning the same abuses may be continuing, according to a nonprofit government watchdog.

The federal tax agencys policy requires IRS officials to stop processing tax-exempt applications that are likely to attract media or congressional attention, the Cause of Action Institute said in a report made public Wednesday.

The policy also directs IRS officials to prepare sensitive case reports for their supervisors and to ignore the merits of the application if it involved a newsworthy topic.

Targeting was and is IRS policy, not a violation of it, the report said, noting that the policy is still in place. As a result, American taxpayers are at risk for similar treatment in the future.(RELATED:Real Power Behind IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal Still A Mystery)

In halting the applications, preparing such reports and referring the matter to supervisors, including political appointees, IRS employees behaved exactly as agency rules dictated, the report continued.

The IRS delayed hundreds of applications from conservative and Tea Party groups beginning in 2010. A federal court recently ruled the IRS is still targeting groups using the policy.(RELATED:Federal Judge Says IRS Still Targeting Tea Party With Classic Catch-22)

The policy automatically politicizes the process in an attempt to avoid potential embarrassment, according to the report. Partisan officials can use the vague and open-ended policy to selectively delay and obstruct those applications receiving higher scrutiny without a way to hold the officials accountable for their decisions. (RELATED:Justice Dept. Had Powerful Case For IRS Targeting Charges)

Issues that attract media or congressional attention are usually political in nature, and reliance on such a criterion means that the process itself cannot avoid partisan bias, the report continued, noting low-level employees could delaytax-exempt applications after watching a single TV news story.

Cincinnati-based IRS tax specialist Jack Koester referred a Tea Party groups tax exempt application to a supervisor one year after Tea Part rallies began. Cause of Action Institute called it the patient zero for forthcoming problems.

The application was passed up the chain of command until supervisors determined to hold it until Washington managers decided how to proceed.

This same procedure was followed in the numerous Tea Party applications that followed, the report said. In most of those matters, the higher-level decision on how to proceed would not come for several years.

Cause of Action Institute noted that one theme was consistent while the original case was passed around among managers concern about media attention, the report said. Five separate levels of management cited that concern specifically, including the reference to potential embarrassment, while no mention at all was made of workload concerns, novel legal questions, or other similar rationales.

The targeting became more elaborate over the following months, and the agency created be on the lookout lists ordering officials to hold all Tea Party or patriot applications. (RELATED:New FBI Docs Show IRS Tea Party Applications To Black Hole)

Regardless, the IRS hasnt changed its policy, even after an inspector general report, five in-depth congressional reports and extensivenews coverage.

Seven years after the targeting scandal began, the rule that enabled this inexcusable behavior still exists, the report said. Until that rule is removed from the internal manual used by all IRS employees, targeting of political opponents will remain a very real threat.

Cause of Action Institute noted that the IRS has the authority to change its policy without legislation.

Given the amount of criticism the IRS has received regarding its targeting practices, it is hard to believe the agency has not yet taken the steps needed to remedy the problem, the report said.

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IRS Targeting Could Happen Again, Watchdog Finds | The Daily ... - Daily Caller

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (screen grab)

President Donald Trumps proposed budget has been drawing predictable criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans, but a new report claims that even Tea Party favorites such as Maine Gov. Paul LePage and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin are worried as well.

TheNew York Times reports that during a conversation with White House budget director Mick Mulvaney recently, both Bevin and LePage expressed concerns about some of the massive cuts proposed in the Trump budget to key programs that benefit their states.

Bevin was particularly upset by the White Housess plan to defund theAppalachian Regional Commission, which the Times describes asan economic development agency that spans 13 states and steers millions of dollars in federal money to Kentucky.

LePage, meanwhile, questioned the White Houses plans to cut low-income housing aid.

Although neither of these governors have gone public with their gripes yet, theTimes notes that their private opposition is symbolic of the difficulties that the Trump administration will have in making its proposed budget a reality.

Originally posted here:
Even Tea Party Govs. LePage and Bevin are spooked by Trump budget's draconian cuts - Raw Story