In its opposition to the Affordable Care Act, the Tea Party is not defending the ideals of the founding fathers, but subverting them

The U.S. government was set up with a system of checks and balances that would ensure that no one part of government would have an excessive amount of power. In light of the current government shutdown, Ethan Ilzetzki argues that there is no constitutional impediment to the U.S. Congress passing a budget, only the refusal of Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s to allow a clean Continuing Resolution to go to a vote, which a majority of the house would be likely to support. Boehner’s reticence is almost entirely down to the influence of a minority of Republicans from the Tea Party- the type of factional influence that the founding fathers were greatly concerned about.