Progressives set stage for crisis

Art Gisi, Las Vegas

Friday, Oct. 25, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

The Tea Party continues to get the blame for the government shutdown and the averted debt ceiling crisis. In a recent column, there is more blame being heaped on the Tea Party for the events of the past few weeks.

There’s a line of thought that the Tea Party needs to be excluded from the Republican Party because its lawmakers were obstructing the political process. This view is one-sided.

The people who were asked an opinion are the same people who work to elect senators such as John McCain. Compromise is a good thing, but surrender without gaining anything is not compromise. He’s partly responsible for the surrender that occurred last week.

The Tea Party didn’t create the conditions that brought on the crisis. That crisis and others are the product of 100 years of progressive political leaders altering our Constitution and court system.

It started with the 16th Amendment (income tax) and the 17th Amendment (Senate elected by the people) and continued through the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration (altering the Supreme Court).

That court made some key decisions that affected the Commerce Clause.

Every administration in modern history has had a hand in what occurred in the past few weeks, not the Tea Party.

The real PR disaster was senators and representatives who feared voting against a continuing resolution because of the looming 2014 election.