Tim Rutten predicts what I suspect could be the first real crisis ahead - both within the GOP and for the country and world:
One of the first tests of [Boehner's] ability to discipline populist revolutionaries fresh from the electoral barricades will come when the new Congress is asked to raise the federal debt limit from $12.4 trillion to $14.3 trillion. No Congress has ever refused to approve such an increase and, if such a refusal were to occur, the consequences for the global financial system would be apocalyptic.
Many of the new senators and House members have pledged to vote against an increase in the debt. Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity one of the more active national tea party groups told Politico this week that the Republicans' new House majority "cannot fold on the debt."