Closer to a Government Shutdown

First Read: “Twenty-four hours ago, it looked like Congress was headed toward a temporary resolution. Today, things look bleaker, and it puts Boehner in his box. Right now, the government is one step closer to a shutdown, thanks, in part, to Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). Any hope Republicans had to at least share the blame with President Obama and Democrats was pretty much wiped away when Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Cruz had a fight on the Senate floor. There has been talk that Boehner has appeared to be trying to move conservatives to focus on the debt ceiling. And they are going to proceed with that, but they haven’t gotten off of the shutdown talk yet. And yesterday Boehner tried to show some vigor in when talking about Obama.”

“But it is also important to note that Boehner hasn’t passed judgment on what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is doing. We’re all, of course, going to be focused on what’s been SAID, but sometimes we need to also focus on what HASN’T been said. Boehner is keeping every option open to him. The odd thing about this shutdown is it is pretty clear the leaders don’t want it, but they have to figure out what the path is. Boehner can easily avert the shutdown, but would have to sacrifice maybe 50 Republican votes to do it, and he’s not necessarily willing to do that yet.”