In his address to the nation last week on the debt limit debate, President Obama asked Americans to call their members of Congress and urge them to support his vision of a “balanced” approach to reducing our debt:
The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government. So I’m asking you all to make your voice heard. If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of Congress know. If you believe we can solve this problem through compromise, send that message.
According to press accounts, the phone lines on Capitol Hill lit up following Obama’s speech. And once the deal was struck, Obama thanked Americans at a White House press conference for making their voices heard:
Most of all, I want to thank the American people. It’s been your voices — your letters, your emails, your tweets, your phone calls — that have compelled Washington to act in the final days. And the American people’s voice is a very, very powerful thing.
Well, it turns out that most of the American people who answered Obama’s call to make their voices heard were, by a 2:1 margin … supporters of the Tea Party. The Atlantic Monthly reports a new Pew study which found:
Those Republican and Republican-leaning U.S. adults who agreed with the Tea Party were twice as likely to contact an elected official regarding the debt ceiling debate than the average American. 20 percent of Tea Partiers said they reached out to a representative in the days leading up to the deal, compared to 10 percent of the general population, as indicated in the chart [below].
Behold the power of the bully pulpit.
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THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS MUCH LARGER THAN THE TEA PARTY SO IF 10% OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC CONTACTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS THEN THAT 10% WOULD BE A MUCH LARGER NUMBER THAN THE 20% OF TEA PARTY MEMBERS THAT CALLED CONGRESS. I’VE READ THERE ARE LIKE 2,000,000 TEA PARTY MEMBERS, BUT THERE ARE LIKE 200 MILLION GENERAL PUBLIC PEOPLE. IF 20% OF TEA PARTIERS CALLED THAT WOULD MEAN 400,000 (FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND) TOTAL CALLS BY TEA PARTIERS BUT IF 10% OF GENERAL PUBLIC CALLED THAT WOULD BE ABOUT 20,000,000 (TWENTY MILLION). TWENTY MILLION IS A LOT BIGGER NUMBER THAN FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND. DUH!!!!
THE AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE IS A DUMMY WHO NEEDS TO LEARN BASIC MATH.