WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senior White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday suggested the "Tea Party" movement is an "unhealthy" reaction to the tough economic climate facing the country.
Axelrod was asked on CBS's "Face the Nation" about the "spreading and very public disaffection" with the president's fiscal policies seen at the "Tea Party" rallies around the country last week.
"I think any time you have severe economic conditions there is always an element of disaffection that can mutate into something that's unhealthy," Axelrod said.
Axelrod appeared to backtrack when pressed on whether the movement is unhealthy.
"Well, this is a country where we value our liberties and our ability to express ourselves, and so far these are expressions," he said.
"The thing that bewilders me is that this president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people," Axelrod argued. "I think the tea bags should be directed elsewhere because he certainly understands the burden that people face."
Democratic strategist James Carville disagreed with Axelrod on CNN's "State of the Union" when John King asked him if it's unhealthy for "an American to go out and hold a sign and say 'I think my taxes are too high.'"
Carville said, "No." He called the Tea Party movement "harmless and damaging to Republicans."
If 500,000 people had shown up in 800 locations to protest AIG bonuses, would Axlerod have considered it "unhealthy"?
They're trying to dismiss the movement as misguided, and you can see that in his comment about the 95% "tax cut". The movement was not as much about current taxes as future taxes that will be required to pay for Obama's fiscal policies. The fact that the interviewer didn't know enough about the Tea Parties to challenge him on that is telling too.
I can still remember back in the bad old days of the Bush administration when dissent was patriotic.
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