As the House and the Senate wrangle about funding for government programs after the Continuing Resolution which also defunded Obamacare failed to pass, there has been lots of politicking.
House Republicans compromised and had a C.R. which asked for a one year delay in Obamacare individual implementation and a repeal of the unpopular 2.3% medical device tax, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) lead that to a 54-46 party line vote rejecting it.
The House then passed a Continuing Resolution which ensured that Congress got no special carve outs or privileges regarding Obamacare. That too was rejected.
President Obama listed the many programs which would be curtailed by the furlough. This included closing National Parks and stopping NIH funding. The Democrats hoped to use a group of 25 children with cancer as political pawns to illustrate their point about the evil shutdown (which they want to pin on Tea Party Republicans).
Well, the House passed individual funding bills for the National Park Service and the NIH in response to the rhetoric. But Senate Democrats and President Obama are intractably inflexible on finding compromise and passing these particular funding bills.
Part of proficient progressive propaganda is having a compliant press which plays along with the predilections of the partisans. That's why Senator Harry Reid was surprised on Wednesday during a press availability asked a tough question by CNN's Dana Bash about helping one child with cancer.
In the past, partisan pan the Senate Majority Leader as "Dirty Harry" Reid. It seems that a more apt analogy is Gru from Despicable Me.
Admiral Stavridis likened the existential threats of the miniaturization of nuclear warheads and ICBMs which can reach the continental United States to the danger of crossing the streams in Ghostbusters (1983). 
