Despite the $3,000 signs all over the place, the ARRA has little to do with economic stimulus and much to do about bailing out states that budget beyond their means.
There is the active Tea Party revolt going on, but there is an even greater passive revolt going on which involves handling personal finances in such a way as to deprive all levels of government of revenue. Much of the passive revolt is voluntary, but some of it is not because it involves people who have lost jobs and have no means to be taxed.
The underlying problem here is the federal government. If we can't stop the feds from spending trillions of dollars of Monopoly money, then to starve the states and cities is self-defeating.
What we should strive for, it seems to me, is to strengthen states at the expense of the central behemoth in Washington. To starve the state is to feed the real beast by default. For far too long already, states have been functionally reduced to mere administrative units of the fed. That's not the American way.