With More To Come

David Horsey predicts the obstructionism from Tea Party Loons will continue for at least the next year, possibly well into the next Congress.

While normal human beings are spending sunny August days at the beach or the lake or on the road with the kids, tea party activists are crowding into town hall meetings with members of Congress and screeching at the top of their lungs about the imagined evils of Obamacare.

The aim of all this right-wing activism is to get Congress to defund the comprehensive healthcare law that was passed back in the bygone days when Democrats controlled the House and Senate and President Obama had dreams of actually getting something done in his first term. Now, though he has won a second term in office, Obama is blocked on every front by the GOP-controlled House and the filibuster-addicted Senate Republicans. ...

Republicans, conservative lobbying groups and tea party organizers are doing their best to put together one-sided gatherings in which only condemnations of the healthcare law are heard. Back in 2010, that tactic worked pretty well and facilitated the GOP takeover of the House of Representatives in the fall election. At that time, Democratic lawmakers ran away from what they had achieved in passing the Affordable Care Act, leaving the right wing free to set the debate agenda.
This time, the situation may be different. Americans have had time to live with the law and discover that no one is sending Granny to a death camp, and liberals have not been cowering in the corner. Democratic Party activists are putting together a counteroffensive directed by two groups, Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care. It would be a surprise if they were able to summon up a force equal to the frenzied, angry tea party horde, but at least the right wing propaganda will not go unanswered.   [Emphasis added]

I think a combination of the rebuttals from Democrats and the kicking in of various provisions of the ACA (including the shrinking and eventual ending of the donut hole for meds) will certainly have some impact.

But I don't think it will quiet the loons, nor do I think moderate Republicans (what few are left) will dare challenge the Tea Partiers.  That means the 114th Congress will be as obstructionist as the 113th even in the unlikely event Democrats pick up a few more seats.

It's going to be a long four three years.