In addition to what Sean pointed out, the Tea Party effectively started in 2007, as a small group of right-leaning folks on a couple of investing forums equally disgusted with both political parties. They had the idea to mail tea bags to Congress then as a form of protest, but it wasn't until two years later that that movement culminated in the official Tea Party. Some of these early people were later alienated as it quickly became more partisan.
So if the Tea Party started in 2007 as a small group disgusted with both parties, how does your original comment (not your later meaning-reversing edit!) make sense?
The establishment GOP gave Bush a pass on his deficit spending at the time. Only the nascent Tea Party criticized him for it then.
Hence I don't believe the establishment GOP anymore when they complain about Obama's deficit spending. One, it's self-serving not principled, and two, odds are if they win back power they'll deficit spend just like Bush and Obama, albeit while attempting to obfuscate it with artful accounting tricks (like spinning cutting ~$100B from the deficit over 10 years as a win).
