I do agree that both republicans and democrats have gotten us into this shit mess.
I could be wrong, but the tea parties goal is to reign in gov spending, lower taxes, and put the money in the pockets of the citizens so they can decide how to move forward. That in combination with stimulus programs could possibly be the game plan and I could possibly be dead wrong.
My big concern is that gov will get so big that we are basically working to maintain their spending and lose any shred of personal freedoms that we have left. Yes I know it's simpleton approach.
Reigning in the welfare/unemployment programs can start now without an impact for another year or two. Current people in the program will not be effected and those coming in will be under different rules that are not completely gutted, but lets say 5% reduction over a period of time for each wave of new applicants. Getting people motivated will ultimately decrease the numbers who live in poverty, increase those who are contributing to our country, and increase those paying taxes.
The sad thing is there will likely never be any decent deficit reduction due to both parties use gov spending to secure their votes in their states.