Fill in the blanks: Government shutdown

This is Fill In The Blanks where I read a story that by now is so familiar that all of you can simply fill in the ______.

So of course today’s subject is the government shutdown. Which is one of the strangest shutdowns we’ve ever seen. Because as soon as it started, the very people who allowed the government to close down started passing bills to open it back up.

They wanted to reopen military monuments because closing them was an insult to Veterans. Even though it came out that a large share of the furloughed government workers were also veterans.

Then they wanted to reopen National Institutes of Health because they were turning away people who were sick. Even though one reason for the shutdown was to undermine Obamacare, the whole purpose of which is not to turn away people who are sick.

However, on the bright side, with all those government workers staying home, it meant the nation was at least saving money. Right. Until Congress voted to pay them anyway.

So what’s happened after an entire week of heated debate is that our representatives have decided to pay hundreds of thousands of federal workers to stay home. Which is as ridiculous as it gets.

Yes, unless you count what the Speaker of the House told ABC George Stephanopoulos is about to happen, “the President’s refusal to sit down and have a conversation about this -”

“Are you saying that if the President continues to refuse to negotiate, the country is going to default?” asked Stephanopoulos.

Replied Speaker John Boehner, “It’s the path we’re on.”

What do you think about that?

Holy _____.