BOSTON (AP) — In the city where a protest over tax policy sparked a revolution, modern day tea party activists are cheering the recent Republican revolt in Washington that embarrassed House Speaker John Boehner and pushed the country closer to a ‘‘fiscal cliff’’ that forces tax increases and massive spending cuts on virtually every American.

‘‘I want conservatives to stay strong,’’ says Christine Morabito, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party. ‘‘Sometimes things have to get a lot worse before they get better.’’





‘‘It weakens the entire Republican Party, the Republican majority,’’ Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, said Thursday night shortly after rank-and-file Republicans rejected Boehner’s ‘‘Plan B’’ — a measure that would have prevented tax increases on all Americans but million-dollar earners.

‘‘I mean it’s the continuing dumbing down of the Republican Party and we are going to be seen more and more as a bunch of extremists that can’t even get a majority of our own people to support policies that we’re putting forward,’’ LaTourette said. ‘‘If you’re not a governing majority, you’re not going to be a majority very long.’’


Smith said his ‘‘hat’s off’’ to those Republicans in Congress who rejected their own leader’s plan.

‘‘Let’s go over the cliff and see what’s on the other side,’’ the blacksmith said. ‘‘On the other side’’ are tax increases for most Americans, not just the top earners, though that point seemed lost on Smith, who added: ‘‘We have a day of reckoning coming, whether it’s next week or next year. Sooner or later the chickens are coming home to roost. Let’s let them roost next week.’’



‘‘If it takes us going off a cliff to convince people we’re in a mess, then so be it,’’ South Carolina GOP Chairman Chad Connelly said. ‘‘We have a president who is a whiner. He has done nothing but blame President Bush. It’s time to make President Obama own this economy.’’

In Louisiana, state GOP Chairman Roger Villere said that ‘‘people are frustrated with Speaker Boehner. They hear people run as conservatives, run against tax hikes. They want them to keep their word.’’

Jack Kimball, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman, said he was ‘‘elated’’ that conservatives thwarted Boehner. He called the looming deadline a political creation. ‘‘The Republicans really need to stand on their principles. They have to hold firm.’’


A CBS News survey conducted this month found that 81 percent of adults wanted Republicans in Congress to compromise in the current budget negotiations to get a deal done rather than ‘‘stick to their positions even if it means not coming to an agreement.’’ The vast majority of Republicans and independent voters agreed.Continued...