Andrew Sullivan makes an observation about the Tea Party that translates in some ways to the Republican primary in Congressional District 8, where Jonathan Paton, Jesse Kelly, Brian Miller and Andy Goss are competing to take on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:

So they are truly not serious in policy terms, and it behooves the small government right to grapple with this honestly. They both support lower taxation and yet bemoan the fact that so many Americans do not pay any income tax. They want to cut spending on trivial matters while enabling the entitlement and defense behemoths to go on gobbling up Americans' wealth. And that lack of seriousness is complemented by a near-fanatical cultural alienation from the modern world.

I will add that Kelly and Miller have offered up blunt reforms of Social Security and Medicare: They want to basically scrap both programs, although they say that people who now receive or will soon receive benefits should continue to do so because they have paid into the system. Both believe that a private insurance market will provide affordable insurance to the aged and infirm, and both believe that Americans will do a better job of saving for their retirement years if they know they cannot depend on Social Security.