Talk loudly but still carry a big stick

Tomorrow America will welcome the Tea Party into the 112th Congress, a classic example of be careful what you wish for because we got it, and if these people somehow get their way (doubtful), we'll be looking up at the rest of the world.

The thing the Tea Party really wants is a decrease in spending. The truth is, cuts will be necessary in the future because America's spending (or lax of taxing) is unsustainable. Tax revenues will increase as we come out of the recession, not to mention if and hopefully when we allow taxes on rich people to rise. So the Tea Party does want something necessary, they just want it at a time when doing it would presumably sink our economy.

But here's the real kicker; at a time when America faces more global economic competition than ever, at a time when we are being out-educated by multiple countries, at a time when our military is engaged in an entirely new type of warfare that calls for fewer traditional weapons than ever, guess what the Tea Party has decided to cut and guess what they've labeled sacrosanct. You've figured it out haven't you? Because you're smart and the Tea Party, well not so much.

Republicans have declared military spending off limits even though the Secretary of Defense had decided that we're spending too much money on the development of weapons that are outdated. Yes that's right, the top military man in the country is trying to make the military more efficient, but the Tea Party deficit hawks are willing to extend 700 billion in tax cuts to rich people, but they won't cut military spending even a tiny bit.

Worse than that, what is on their chopping block? Try these key areas: education and research. Here are the latest international test results, and while America's unemployment sits near 10% and Americans will need to be increasingly educated to compete in a global economy, the Tea Party has decided to go after education. Ask and ye shall receive.

How about cutting spending on research, after all, America already lags woefully behind China and other countries in the development of green and alternative energy technologies. If we're really trying to reduce unemployment and fix the economy shouldn't we be investing in the technology of the future? Shouldn't we want to put money into fields that will create jobs and wealth here in America? Does logic not exist in the world of the Tea Party?

These questions baffle me as I'm sure they baffle most intelligent Americans, but the Tea Party is long on words but short on smarts. They're talking loudly, but they're not going to carry a smaller stick. America's military will still spend money like we're racing the Soviets to build that next big nuke even though we could slash military spending significantly and still maintain the greatest military force on the planet (perhaps that's the one area where I can find common ground with the Tea Party).

If we really want to reduce the deficit we're going to have to reallocate spending in a way that spurs the economy. The magical reduction of the deficit that the Tea Party thinks is possible by increasing said deficit by over 700 billion bucks isn't just going to happen. Tax revenues will increase as the economy improves, but the economy is only going to improve when we start paying attention to it by investing in human capital via education and research and development in new industries. Cutting funding for those things sets us backwards and actually impedes the military because they'll be losing out on important technologies. But hey, at least we'll have lots of tanks.