In the week following the US government shutdown, tea party Republicans are now poised for a new attack on federal spending as lawmakers and the White House battle over the nation’s borrowing limit.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has put Congress on notice: The United States will hit its borrowing ceiling on Oct. 17. Far-right House Republicans have been salivating for a debt-ceiling fight for months, eager to take on what the chamber’s top Republican calls “Washington’s spending problem.”

A dramatic few weeks of political wrangling that led to a government shutdown saw House Republicans go after President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. And while it’s likely they will take that fight to a coming debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, House GOP leaders and rank-and-file members also want more spending reductions.

“On the debt limit, we’re going to introduce a plan that ties important spending cuts and pro-growth reforms to a debt-limit increase,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who many in Washington view as being driven by the tea party wing of his caucus.

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