Let's remember that the Tea Party was founded by Ron Paul, not Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. It has become a popular political movement and therefore has drawn in a bunch of hangers-on who want to exploit its popularity. Let's judge the movement by their general principles (lower taxes, lower public spending, rejection of the bailouts), not by particular affinities some members may have.

The piece continues with the sobering assessment that America’s actual unemployment rate isn’t really 10 percent, but close to 20 percent when we factor in the number of people who have stopped looking for work.

This is true everywhere. If you want a better metric, check out the actual proportion of the population in active employment. The unemployment rate is a statistical trick: if people become discouraged and stop looking for work, it may appear that unemployment is going down.

As an aside, all non-wage benefits that employees receive (like free dental plan or paid vacations) are eventually subtracted from their own pockets. To an employer, wage is just one of the costs of maintaining an employee. More "benefits" just means the employee pays more out of his pocket and takes home less money.