The Tea Party was born in 2009. It is now two years old.



All parents know what the "terrible twos" look like. What's happening now on Capitol Hill is unmistakable: the Tea Party is throwing a tantrum.



When they first arrived in Washington, the Tea Party freshman class was fawned over and adored. They were given seats on powerful committees. They took special classes about the Constitution and spent a lot of time talking about what they thought was in it. They held votes to stick it to their least favorite things -- women's health care, environmental protection, and public radio.



But then something happened. The Tea Party discovered it couldn't get everything it wanted.



Passing a budget is a task that requires a certain amount of compromise and sacrifice. As such, it is a task that two-year-olds are not particularly well suited to perform. Grown-up Congresses pass budgets all the time -- they bicker and they argue, but in the end they realize that the functioning of the United States government and the well-being of their constituents is worth a little political sacrifice.



But not so for the Tea Party. They wanted tens of billions of dollars in budget cuts. They got tens of billions of dollars in budget cuts. They wanted to slash funding for preschools and college scholarships and foreign aid. But that wasn't enough. What they really wanted -- really, really, really wanted -- was to defund Planned Parenthood and keep the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. And when they didn't get those things, they started screaming.



Toddlers don't recognize that the world does not begin and end with their demands. They do not realize that the matches they're playing with could hurt someone.