*Government Shutdown

Last week, Republicans decided to shut down the government and threatened default on our nation’s financial obligations all over their obsession with delaying or defunding the Affordable Care Act. Now some Republicans are seeing the error of their ways:

“Every one of you here, everyone of you here represents 100,000 who are not here.

Yesterday, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) made a startling admission about his party’s strategy to continue their government shutdown.  He told the Huffington Post:

 “I do think that what reopens shutdowns more than policy are polls.”

 That’s funny, because here’s what the polls are saying:

In the 10^th day of the GOP government shutdown, Republicans are still no closer to their stated goal of dismantling the Affordable Care Act, but they have managed to accomplish something— receiving the disdain of the business community:

As the Republican government shutdown wears on, the impacts continue to be felt across the country, harming a wide range of industries:

New York Times: Without Services, Small Businesses Feel the Pinch

In case you missed it, we wanted to make sure you saw today’s editorial in USA Today highlighting Republicans’ constantly-shifting fiscal dysfunction:

USA Today Editorial: New shutdown day, new GOP demand

The Editorial Board, USATODAY 8:43 p.m. EDT October 9, 2013

In just another example of Republicans refusing Democrats’ attempts to talk and negotiate, only 18 of the 232 House Republicans invited to the White House actually plan to attend tomorrow’s meeting with President Obama.

I want to say that the President emphasized over and over again what we also share, and that is he is willing to talk about all of the issues that our Republican colleagues want to talk about and try to come to agreement.