Dallas , Texas ( CNN ) -- The modern Tea Party movement began on February 27 , 2009 , when small groups in 22 American cities gathered to protest the signing of President Obama 's stimulus bill . The Tea Party groups viewed the stimulus bill as the crowning moment of decades of irresponsible government fiscal behavior . The federal government is addicted to spending , and the consequences are now staring us in the face . Our national debt is at emergency levels and growing rapidly . Congressional Budget Office head Doug Elmendorf recently said the nation 's fiscal path is simply `` unsustainable . '' And yet this financial crisis seems obvious to virtually everyone except our elected officials in Washington . Tea Party members are not averse to paying taxes . However , taxpayers are stretched thin , and piling more taxes on their backs is not the answer . We do not understand nor approve of Washington 's insatiable appetite for spending , because that 's not the way we as individuals live . We do not massively overspend today and borrow money tomorrow to cover the bills . As California and New York are learning , that ride eventually comes to an end . This week , Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said , `` To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits , the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes , modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare , less spending on everything else from education to defense , or some combination of the above . '' The Tea Party endorses massive reductions of federal spending before any consideration of new taxes is brought to the table . Tea Party members clearly understand Bernanke 's warning . If something drastic is not done soon , our entire financial system and way of life will collapse . The Tea Party 's goal from inception has been to replace big-spending politicians from both political parties with common-sense , fiscally responsible leaders . America has moved away from the vision of our Founding Fathers who advocated for a nuanced balance between federal and state power . As America has drifted from constitutional values , federal power has grown . We have gone from a nation of self-sufficient producers to a nation divided between overburdened taxpaying producers and some nonproducers who exist on welfare from cradle to grave . So what would the Tea Party movement recommend to set America on its rightful course ? Federal spending must immediately be drastically slashed across the board : Abolish the useless departments of Education and Agriculture , among others ; get rid of the EPA ; and repeal the stimulus bill and other pork spending . These are millstones around the neck of the American taxpayer and our economy . Send all responsibilities of these agencies back to the states where they can be better and more efficiently managed . Foreign aid and Pentagon spending must be equally constrained and reduced . Second , the number of government jobs must be substantially cut , and those employees must return to the private sector . Overpaid bureaucrats with fat benefits and pensions not found in the real world are simply not needed . Or wanted . Third , fraud and welfare waste must be eliminated . Welfare and unemployment benefits must be drastically cut . Welfare , health and education services for illegal immigrants must be eliminated . The Center for Immigration Studies recently reported that 33 percent of immigrant households use some kind of `` welfare . '' Again , who pays ? The American taxpayer ! Government must get completely out of the private sector . Market freedoms must prevail for America to be successful . Government control over our financial and insurance industries , major manufacturing , health care and energy is a sure recipe for disaster . Washington bureaucrats are simply incapable of efficiency . The Tea Party is determined to send new , fiscally responsible leaders to Washington to trim government fat -- and not with scalpels , but with chainsaws . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Phillip Dennis .
Phillip Dennis : 22 mai 2012 Dennis : Government jobs must be substantially cut ; employees sent to the private sector . Tea Party wants welfare and unemployment benefits drastically cut , he says . Take a chainsaw to government , get it out of the private sector , Dennis writes .