Tea Party Values

From Jon Chait at New Republic:

(T)he evidence that Tea Party activists want to cut spending -- at least actual spending programs -- is sparse. Polls show that Tea Party supporters overwhelmingly oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The main thrust of Tea Party opinion is not the belief that Obama has spent too much money, but the belief that Obama has spent too much money on people unlike them:

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people. 

More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public. (NYT - 4/14/2010)

Further, as Chait points out, according to Public Religion Research polling during the 2010 mid-term elections, people who identify as "Tea Party" believe by a margin of 23 percentage points over average Americans that it's "not a problem if some have more chance in life,"  by a greater margin of 21 percentage points that "minorities get too much government attention" and by a greater margin of 17 percentage points that "immigrants are a burden on the county."