"I think we are now about to enter the lull before the storm," says Bob Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition.

"My guess is that we are about to begin six pretty intense months of political posturing before the election. This is unfortunate but is probably to be expected. But I sure hope congressional leaders are quietly trying to game out what happens after the elections because there is a huge backlog of issues that are going to hit during the Lame Duck session," says Bixby.