Seventeen years after the Tax Day Tea Party protests galvanized a nationwide grassroots movement, two of its early architects, Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips and The Tennessee Star’s CEO Michael Patrick Leahy, graded how the U.S. has measured up to the movement’s founding principles.
During Wednesday’s broadcast of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Leahy and Phillips revisited the three core values that defined the Tea Party movement in 2009: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets.
Both Leahy and Phillips strongly agreed that the country has failed to achieve fiscal discipline since the movement’s rise.
“I think it would be fair to say…it’s been an abysmal failure,” Leahy said, noting the national debt has grown from roughly $10 trillion in 2009 to more than $38 trillion today.
Phillips was even more blunt, adding, “Abject disaster would probably be a better way to describe it.”
He pointed to recent borrowing trends as evidence of worsening conditions.
“During the six-month period, the national debt has risen by $1.2 trillion…By the time this fiscal year is over, we’ll have added 2.5 trillion to the national debt…we are entering the death spiral.”
Phillips also warned of structural risks tied to short-term debt financing, noting, “We are literally one major economic shock away from a complete fiscal meltdown and fiscal disaster.”
Both Leahy and Phillips ultimately assigned failing grades on fiscal responsibility.
Leahy said he would give the country an “F-,” while Phillips went further, calling it an “F- to the 25th power,” underscoring the depth of his concern.
On the second core value of the Tea Party movement – constitutionally limited government – Leahy and Phillips offered different assessments.
Phillips maintained a largely negative view, saying, “I don’t know, maybe an F+,” arguing that the size and scope of government have not been meaningfully reduced.
“Have we made any real steps towards eliminating that bureaucracy, that entire machinery? The answer’s no,” he added.
Leahy, however, pointed to changes in the judiciary and executive branch as signs of improvement over the past decade, particularly in recent years.
“I think in terms of constitutionally limited government…the Supreme Court during the 17-year period has improved dramatically,” he said.
Reflecting that more optimistic outlook, Leahy assigned a grade of “B-” for constitutionally limited government, in contrast to Phillips’ “F+.”
The two found more common ground when discussing free markets, though their evaluations still differed slightly.
Phillips credited deregulation efforts in recent years, saying, “Because of Donald Trump, I would say B+, A-,” highlighting policies aimed at reducing federal regulations.
He added, “10 regulations must be repealed for every new regulation that is imposed, and that is absolutely fantastic.”
Leahy largely agreed with that assessment, also giving free markets a “B+,” while noting that performance varies depending on whether policies are evaluated at the federal or state level.
Phillips cautioned that regulatory expansion in prior administrations and in certain states has constrained economic freedom, stating, “You saw the free market being strangled…you still see this in blue states today.”
“One of the reasons so many of these companies are fleeing blue states to the free states because it’s not only taxes, but it’s just utterly insane laws and regulations that just are killing the free market,” he added.
Summing up their overall assessments, Leahy said he would give the country a “B+,” explaining he viewed red states as earning an “A,” blue states a “D,” and President Donald Trump an “A,” while Phillips said he would award Trump an “A+.”
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk!
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tea Party Protest” by Sage Ross. CC BY 2.0.
