Tea Party Voter Guide

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - A pivotal group in the ongoing debt debate has been the Tea Party. Several Republican congressional seats were won last fall because of strong Tea Party support. Local Tea Party supporters are holding their legislative allies to the campaign promises; working towards what they hope will be a more 'fiscally responsible government'. Critics of the movement said the Tea Party could be the very reason why the debt debate has not yet come to an end.

"You want to know why people across America get grossed out by politics. It's because they are watching stuff like this happen," said Florida Republican Marco Rubio on the senate floor in Washington, D.C. Saturday. "This chamber has done nothing. Talk about delay tactics. They have been delaying for two and half years," Rubio added. Frustration is not only present in the nation's capitol and it is not limited to Republicans and/or Democrats. The ranks of the Tea Party are fired up as well.

"We elected people to go in and responsibly cut spending," said Bruce Besser, President of the South Florida Tea Party. Besser said his allies in congress are fighting for the Tea Party ideal of creating a government that is more 'fiscally responsible'. "The Tea Party is holding their feet to the fire, and telling them 'look, you have to make real honest cuts'," Besser said, speaking about President Barack Obama and Democrats in congress.

Former state Representative Kelly Skidmore, a Democrat, believes that the Tea Party's demands could be fracturing the G.O.P base and, in turn, preventing a resolution to this looming debt crisis. "It has put so much pressure on individuals in congress to do what the Tea Party wants, that there is no room for negotiation," she said. Skidmore expects a deal to be reached before Tuesday, but not without more political battling in Washington and likely more frustration across the United States. "If you had just the Democrats and Republicans, I think we would've had a deal by now," she said.

Many in the Tea Party agree that the debt ceiling must be raised. But in order to support debt legislation, many of their allies in congress want some significant spending cuts to be part of any deal. Local Tea Party members remain confident that that can happen before Tuesday's deadline. "We're helping bring the government back to the reality that you can't spend more money than you make," said Besser.