“Budget talks between the White House and Senate Republicans have gone nowhere since Congress began its summer recess, increasing chances of a fiscal stalemate that could lead to a government shutdown in October or the threat of a government default later in the fall,” the New York Times reports.

“Negotiators who had hoped for a summer breakthrough say the chances for a major deficit reduction deal are rapidly slipping away. While many members of both parties say they would like to avoid either a shuttering of the government as of Oct. 1 or a default caused by failing to increase the federal debt limit, no acceptable solution has emerged. Lawmakers say the consequences could be severe.”

Meanwhile, Roll Call reports Speaker John Boehner “outlined a strategy for next month’s spending fight focused on the sequester spending cuts — and not on defunding Obamacare.”

The Week: Tea partiers get a dose of bad news from a Republican pollster.

“A new poll done for Republican members of Congress has found huge public opposition, and solid opposition among Republicans, to the idea of shutting down the government over the issue of funding Obamacare,” the Washington Examiner reports.

Key findings: Among all voters, 71% of those surveyed opposed a shutdown, while 23% favored a shutdown. Among just Republicans, 53% opposed, versus 37% who favored.

Politico:
“They’d never say it publicly. But catch many Democrats in an honest
moment and they would admit that a Republican-led government shut down
this fall might be the best thing — perhaps the only thing — that could
revive their fading hopes of capturing the House next year…Nothing
short of a powerful jolt — a moment that grabs casual voters by the
lapels and makes them take notice — is likely to alter the landscape in a
dramatic way. A shutdown could be it, Democrats argue, putting in play
GOP-leaning districts now thought to be all but out of reach.”