Tea party leaders are fighting back after being blamed by Democrats for Standard & Poor’s credit downgrade of the U.S., reports the Washington Times. 

“For them to blame this on the tea party movement is like blaming the firefighters for the fire. It’s absured,” Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express aid. “If it were not for the tea party movement, Washington would’ve already gone and spent more.”
 

Kremer’s defense follows Sen. John Kerry and White House senior David Axelrod’s characterization of the downgrade as the “tea party downgrade.” Not to mention Vice President Biden’s alleged closed-door comments about tea party supporters behaving like “terrorists.”