Tea Party wins

The Tea Party is the ultimate winner in the debt deal.

The debt deal President Obama signed into law Tuesday was shaped largely by the Tea Party movement, which propelled dozens of fresh faces into Congress last year only after the candidates pledged to drastically slash federal spending.

While many Tea Party freshmen in the House and Senate ended up voting against the debt ceiling bill because they didn't think it cut deep enough, their fingerprints were all over the measure.
There were historically steep cuts, no tax increases and a commitment to even bigger spending reductions in the near future. In response to Tea Party pressure, the measure also requires the House and Senate to vote on a balanced budget amendment, something that hasn't happened in 15 years.
"The Tea Party had a huge influence on the debate," said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank.
Just six months ago, Edwards said, Democrats were proposing new stimulus spending, not reductions. Then the debate on the debt ceiling started, and the sizable pack of new House members sent a clear message to Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that they wouldn't vote to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit unless spending was slashed.