Welcome to the GOP Government Shutdown

As of today, the great government of the United States is shut down, but guess what? You can buy health insurance on the exchanges today, because it is the law today. This bit of stupidity is courtesy of the teajhadis in the House. The NYDN gives this just the right cover today:

Right? And since our media seem to have forgotten how we got here with their breathless coverage of the last minute conference deal, pay attention to Senator Patty Murray:

After blocking Senate Democrats’ attempts to start a budget conference 18 times over the past six months, Republicans are now scrambling to start a conference committee with mere minutes to go before a government shutdown. This is just the latest absurd and desperate attempt by Speaker Boehner to delay the inevitable–bringing a clean continuing resolution to the floor for Democrats and Republicans to vote on–and to continue pushing the country toward a completely unnecessary government shutdown. If Republicans were truly serious about avoiding a crisis they would pass the Senate’s short-term funding bill to remove the threat of a government shutdown immediately. We won’t negotiate while Republicans are threatening families and the economy with a crisis.

Got that? In the past 6 months the GOP-controlled House has reused to appoint anyone to a conference committee to has out a budget. SIX MONTHS. But last night all they could come up with was a conference committee for the CR. I’m calling bullshit on the GOP and I’m calling bullshit on the media types who still can’t get the context of this thing right.