“I expect questions like raising the debt ceiling to offer the most insight into how the famous Republican discipline among its ranks holds or breaks,” Selzer says…

“The debt ceiling is a pivotal issue, a linchpin issue,” says Peter Bordow, a Tea Party organizer in Arizona.

“There needs to be a broad understanding of the effect of this decision, but I think we are inevitably going to need to swallow a difficult pill someday,” he says. “Not raising the debt ceiling may be that difficult pill.”

That position has been echoed by newly elected Tea Party-backed House Republicans, including Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania car dealer.