Tea Party-Business Rift Shown in Lawmakers’ Voting Scores
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Nine Senate Republicans yesterday joined 169 of their House colleagues in defying the small-government Tea Party movement by voting to pass a bipartisan budget deal, the latest marker in an internal power struggle that could redefine the party.
By rebuffing the Tea Party groups and their Washington-based allies, including FreedomWorks and Heritage Action, many of the Republicans are risking primary challenges. Depending on their outcome, those contests could either curb or embolden the confrontational impulses inside the party.