Tea Party Nation founder: Tea Party brought GOP 'back to life' but failed to cut spending

The founder of Tea Party Nation, Judson Phillips, said the Tea Party movement initially brought the GOP "back to life" but ultimately failed to change fiscal policy as the deficit and debt continued to soar since 2009.

“The Tea Party movement was an abject failure. There’s just no other way to put it. Look at where we are today," he said on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show. "When the Tea Party movement started, it was triggered by Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. Today, that’s a rounding error."

He noted that the deficit was about $10 trillion when former President Obama began his presidency in January 2009 and now it's approaching $35 trillion. 

"We brought the Republican Party back to life. They had nothing after John McCain was wiped out in 2008. What were the thanks the GOP gave us? We got them a majority in the House in 2010, and they did nothing. They refused to do anything," he said.

"We got the most liberal Republican nominee in the history of the party in 2012, Mitt Romney, who could have just as easily fit in as a Democrat. Then, in 2014, we got [Republicans] in the Senate. What did they do? They made sure their lobbyists got their projects funded. They funded a few other things, but did they cut spending? Absolutely not,” Phillips also said.

Phillips said former President Donald Trump winning a second term might delay an "economic meltdown" but won't change much in terms of the rapidly rising national debt.

"I hate to say, but the 2024 election doesn’t matter at this point because we’re past the point of no return," Phillips said. "The only question is when, not if, there’s a complete economic meltdown and collapse. It’s coming. Even if Trump wins this fall, all he does is buy us time. The Democrats, if they get back in, if they keep control, they accelerate the process."

He argued that the country could have avoided the existing dire financial situation posed by the record debt if the GOP had "listened to us" in 2009.

"Now we’re past that point. That’s why I say the Tea Party movement was a failure,” he said.