Government Shutdown Ping-Pong

++The House just passed another bill shutting down the government if Obamacare isn't postponed. This time they lost a few Republicans as so-called "moderates" are beginning to tire of this charade.

++President Obama spoke well today about how you don't get a ransom for doing your basic job and told the nation that tomorrow the health exchanges are being set up with or without the government operating.

++Elizabeth Warren, the Senator of Commonsense,was impolite to note that the Senate passed a budget in March that rolled back the Sequester but the House refused to meet in conference to negotiate a compromise budget that would have kept the government funding for a whole year. Then she was impolite to note that the Senate a few months later passed individual funding bills but the House could not. The noticeable failure by the House was the Farm Bill, which ended up with the passage of subsidies for the private farms of House members but another bill to cut $50 billion from foodstamps.

++Steve Benen, whose voice hasn't been amplified now he is at Rachel Maddow blog, points out today that the closing of the government has been the GOP plot since March, pointing to the same disturbing facts Senator Warren did in her Senate speech this afternoon. 

++At slightly after 9pm EST, I have no idea where this will end, except to note that this is a CR for only two months. It is absurd for the President and the Senate to make even one concession for a nothing burger. 

++The New York Times had an excellent op-ed this morning on why President Obama must raise the debt ceiling himself because he would be facing the possibility of breaking several laws at once and raising the debt ceiling would be the most fruitful of all his options. Apparently, the President did consider this last time and Huffington Post submitted a Freedom of Information Request which was turned down by the DOJ.

++Eric Holder didn't let the shutdown talks stop him. The DOJ is suing North Carolina on its Voter ID law.

++Late last Saturday night, the House pulled another boner by inserting language that companies can deprive women of birth control coverage in insurance. I was not even a teenager when the issue of contraceptives was decided by the Supreme Court. So the government could shutdown on the issue of contraceptives and a tax on medical devices, which I suppose the tea baggers think are dildos and other adult toys. 

++One think to consider if you already have health insurance,if the House had succeeded in postponing Obamacare, your premiums would rise from 10-15%. 

++Preliminary polls show over 60% blame the GOP for closing the government and only 13% the President. But I have also seen polls in states like Texas, which blame the Democrats more than Republicans. But I still bet on the GOP taking the blame. Unfortunately, it will not affect the end results in House races in 2014 because Larry Sabato said today there are in good shape and have sufficient money. Voter suppression and gerrymandering will not weaken their position.

++Another side debate is whether John Boehner will crash and fall. Conservatives are all over the map on this. Byron York argues Boehner is immune from a tea party revolt. But then again he won't bring a clean CR to the floor. He must be afraid of something. A straight up and down clean CR vote would pass with Democratic support. 

++Ezra Klein appeared the other night on the Rachel Maddow Show to say a government shutdown will allow the Tea Baggers to get their Ya-Yas out. Ezra thinks that's a good think and then we could have a straight debt ceiling raise. I sincerely doubt it. House Republicans are thrilled at closing the government down. This was the Reichstag fire they wanted all along. And a vast majority do not believe stopping a debt ceiling would matter any. This is a dangerous area to explore and the Teabaggers, who show no signs of understanding basic economics, would go there in a minute.