"Job one is my job!"
There is only one reason the Republican shutdown of our government continues: Speaker of the House John Boehner wants to keep his job. The votes to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government are there, but he refuses to bring it up for a vote because:
A host of dynamics in the GOP have forced him to align himself with a camp of hard-core conservatives ... The insurgents are now his palace guards ... he cannot afford to defy those on his right flank ... would leave the already embattled speaker on political life support ... would infuriate conservatives ... It’s the worst-kept secret that one of the keys to Boehner’s persistence is that he has a position that almost no one else wants.
And so screw more than 800,000 federal employees, the hell with women and children who rely on WIC, cancer patients will be just fine without treatment, and what's a measly little $300 million a day hit to the economy ... John Boehner's speakership is in danger! Priorities, people!