The hard Right, spearheaded by Newt Gingrich, wants a law that would let states file bankruptcy. Many states, especially California, are in dire financial straits, and their fiscal houses absolutely need to be made solvent. However, such a law is also widely seen as an attempt to break public pension plans and unions along with it.

America is getting its first glimpse of Tea Party principles in action. Kentucky's newly-seated Junior Senator, Rand Paul, who kicked off his general election campaign by saying "I have a message from the Tea Party... we've come to take our government back," is now working tirelessly on Capitol Hill to do just that.

In his first State of the Union speech after the defeat of the Dream Act, President Obama linked reviving immigration reform to breathing life back into the country's downtrodden economy, noting that such an effort would not happen overnight.