Pence: America benefits from the Tea Party

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on Monday said that the country has benefited from the Tea Party by helping to make congressional spending a campaign issue. 

"The borrowing, the bailouts, the deficit, the takeovers; the Tea Party or the town-hall movement, whatever you want to call it, is really an expression of millions of everyday Americans that are saying 'enough is enough,' " he told MSNBC. "We need to put our fiscal house in order, we need to put this nation back on a pathway toward fiscal solvency and job growth and respect for values. And in that sense, I think the Tea Party will ultimately have been a great, great benefit to America." 

Pence on Saturday won the Values Voters Summit straw poll for the 2012 presidential race by securing 24 percent of the vote. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) came in second, with 22 percent of the vote. 

Tea Party favorite former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin (R) came in fifth, with 7 percent of the vote. 

Americans for Tax Reform's tax policy director, Ryan Ellis, told The Hill that Tea Party concerns over the deficit and debt outweigh most issues, even tax reform.

"Would that they were motivated by fundamental tax reform that would kinda be fun for me, but I don't think they are. They are motivated by spending the debt," he said.