Most Americans, according to a Gallup poll, believe that the Republicans must consider the ideas put forward by their Tea Party colleagues, about the problems that the country faces, rather than disregarding them.

The Tea Party, a name derived from the Boston Tea Party, is an American political movement with no central leadership but is a loose coalition of national and local groups that find their own platforms and programs.

They strongly believe in strict adherence to the constitution as it was originally written. Conservative in their outlook, they advocate lower taxes, reduction in government spending and reducing national debt and federal budget deficit.

Almost 80% of the Tea Party members consider themselves to be Republicans according to a Gallup poll. Despite this some prominent Republicans, notably the three senators – Ronald Johnson of Wisconsin, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, who got into Congress on the Tea Party support, did not join the new Senate Tea Party Caucus, which held its first meeting last Thursday.

According to The Washington Post some of the Republican senators who were elected due to the support from Tea Party are evaluating if it is worthwhile hooking on to the Tea Party label.

There seems to be an absence of unanimity among the Republicans as some feel that the Tea Party activists many a time walk a different road from that of the official GOP line. Obama’s State of the Union address evoked a response from Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Tea Party which seemed to appropriate the attention from the official response of the Republican Party.

Gallup says that 52% of the Republicans support the Tea Party movement, 43% are neutral while 5% are opposed to it. GOP leaders need to tread cautiously between the Tea Party activists and the traditional Republicans. This budget season would be their litmus test.