At The Local Level, Tea Party Activists' Skepticism Turns To Anger On Budget Deal [UPDATE]

At The Local Level, Tea Party Activists' Skepticism Turns To Anger On Budget Deal [UPDATE]

"The deal was cut in a back room, announced without specifics, members supported it without specifics and without reading the bill (shocking, right?), and now it turns out not to be even as it was vaguely presented. Sickening," said Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots.

"And amidst all this, Speaker Boehner proclaims that there is 'no daylight' between he and the Tea Party. If he actually believes that, he must have his eyes closed," Meckler told HuffPost.

But even among the grassroots, there was a recognition that bigger fights over the debt ceiling and the fiscal 2012 budget should become the focus of the GOP now, marking a willingness to swallow the weak tea that the budget deal for the current fiscal year now represents for them.

Bob MacGuffie, a conservative Tea Party activist in Connecticut, said the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget are "the main event."

"This is the fight worth having," MacGuffie said. "We want to engage in a ferocious battle over the debt ceiling and 2012 budget--bring it on--we'll give the Republicans a spine by holding our bayonets firmly at their backs."