WI: Tea Party Should "Sever Ties" with GOP

From a letter to the Wisconsin State Journal:

What do tea party leaders lose when they support progressive, big-government Republicans? Credibility. The tea party movement prides itself on opposition to big government and big-spending politicians. Yet former Gov. Tommy Thompson was given a platform at Thursday’s tea party rally at the Capitol.

Last fall Thompson pushed for the health care bill that came out of the Senate Finance Committee. According to an article in the Washington Times, in his “Statement on Senate Finance Committee Passage of Health Care Reform,” co-authored with tax-and-spend Democrat Dick Gephardt, Thompson praised big government takeover of health care.

He said it would move down the path of providing affordable, high-quality health care for all and expand coverage for millions. Sounds like the same old Democrat Party propaganda. As anyone with common sense understands, the government cannot give high-quality health care to all without massive redistribution of wealth (socialism) and massively high taxes. This is not principled leadership nor does it hold our Constitution in high regard.

Thompson expanded the scope and size of government while governor of Wisconsin by strapping BadgerCare on the backs of taxpayers. It’s time for real change for Wisconsin and for tea party leadership to stop giving a platform to chameleon big-government Republicans like Thompson.
— Dan Mook, Randolph