I didn't believe the government would be shut down.

Because the Republicans fear the Tea Party.

Once the Republicans gather enough evidence that the voters are really pissed off, they will go to the Tea Partiers and say "Sorry, but we have no choice but to go along with the will of the people."

But until there is reliable evidence that the populace is highly irate, the Republicans will not dare to cross the Tea Party. They'll get themselves primaried if they do.

they have been dancing around this fight for years, now almost all players think it is time to throw down. The shutdown is a done deal, the question is will this fight be over by the time the debt limit hits? very doubtful in my view. I am going for Oct 27 out of optimism, Nov 20 is more realistic.

Haven't been keeping up. Looking bad, is it?

I thought the tea baggers had lost most of their impetus????

that dog wont hunt, the will of the people is to cut government and to not do ObamaCare.

you spend too much time listening to the misinformation spread by A2K'ers.

And you spend too much time listening to Fox news. The house republican in my state is gone in the next election.

They've infiltrated the Republican Party and they have all the fanatical fervor of Jim Jones' enforcers at Jonestown.

The mainstream politicians won't stand up to them unless there is proof that the public is turning against the Republicans.

Time will tell.

Hmmm,mmmmmm....


What happens in the US with this sort of issue? Here, if Supply is denied a certain number of times......which is almost unheard of....it triggers a double dissolution and new elections.

We never have early elections.

So, it's a waiting game? There's no mechanism?

Generally the public will grow more and more irate, and one of the sides will back down to avoid the prospect of massive defeat in the next election.

But no, there is no mechanism. In theory the US government could go out of business while both sides dig in and do nothing but glare at each other.

With your title, you are essentially saying that you think the Tea Party driven Republican Party has the brainpower to see the dangers of what they are doing...and whose members have the integrity and spine to do the "right thing" in light of that.

In that, you were being overly optimistic, Edgar!

These people would cut of their noses to spite their faces!

I think the country may be in for a very bad time these next few months in order to teach the Republicans an extremely hard lesson for them to learn.

GOP spending bill includes language targeting birth control mandate
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/325323-gop-adds-birth-control-exemption-as-part-of-obamacare-delay

I guess, when you go for broke, you can put in all of the policy and fantasy wishes you like.

It may be for the best to have this fight, and actually settle something, than to re-fight it every few months. I fear for the state of the nation in either case.

the state of the nation has been deteriorating for some time, and we have shown no will to do anything about it. at some point we will hit bottom, have a come to Jesus moment, and decide that we need to work together and try to fix us. A Washington melt down and the resulting economic calamity might do the trick.

I watched C-Span's coverage last night of the House until after midnight. This morning I have been listening to the pundits. It does indeed appear that there will be a shutdown Monday night. It will cause a lot of people to be inconvenienced and will cost a bunch of money.
But it will probably be short-lived. Tea Party types will be able to say they "stuck it to Obama." Obama can say that he didn't cave and Boehner dodges a bullet.
Most importantly, it probably means that there will an increase in the debt ceiling before Oct 17th. That, in my mind, is the more critical issue as a default would be devastating.
My guess is that the markets will not panic tomorrow about a shutdown.