Texas Tea Party Stages Anti-Health Care Law Meet

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Tea party activists staged a meeting at the Texas Capitol urging Congress to withhold funding for the White House-backed health care law.

ForAmerica Chairman L. Brent Bozell III co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots told Wednesday's event that now is the time to defund the program before it is implemented.

They came to Texas because it's the home state of Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who has opposed the health care overhaul, but does not support a tea party-backed tactic to defund it.

Fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has led that effort. He and other tea party colleagues have pressed Congress to vote for a partial federal government shutdown to avoid funding the health care law.

Even many Republicans, though, say that aim is excessive.