- “Congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President Barack Obama on Wednesday evening admitting they had made no progress on ending the two-day-long government shutdown, and pointing fingers as to which party is to blame for the political stalemate on Capitol Hill. ‘The meeting was cordial but unproductive,’ Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said in a written statement after the meeting.” [TIME]
- Glenn Beck on Boehner: “If you thought John Boehner was fighting for you, you were lied to. Enough is enough, stand up.” [Politico]
- “The prevailing wisdom ahead of the government shutdown was that tea party lawmakers who agitated for it would fold within a few days, once they got an earful from angry constituents and felt the sting of bad headlines. House GOP leaders called it a “touch the stove” moment for the band of Republican rebels, when ideology would finally meet reality. But there’s another reality that explains why that thinking may well be wrong, and the country could be in for a protracted standoff: Most of the Republicans digging in have no reason to fear voters will ever punish them for it.” [Politico]
- “Virginia Democratic Rep. Jim Moran and Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland have introduced measures in the House and Senate to retroactively pay the 800,000 workers who have been furloughed. This follows the example set after the last shutdown in 1995 and 1996, when federal employees were compensated for lost time.” [TIME]
- “Four Head Start programs serving some 3,200 preschool students have closed this week as the government shutdown began taking a bite out of programs serving low-income Americans. Another 11 were set to close by Friday if funding is not restored, a spokeswoman for the program said. The numbers were disclosed for the first time Wednesday.” [WSJ]
- Government shutdown may cause some trouble for Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate in the Virginia gubernatorial race. [NYT]
- “A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.” [NYT]
- The Washington Post asks readers, “How long do you think the shutdown will last?” Average guess today: 18 days. [Washington Post]
Prettier in Print
- Cover story: It’s Only Going to Get Worse in Washington by Michael Scherer and Alex Altman
- What an Iran Deal Would Look Like by Fareed Zakaria
- An Energy Boom that Could Last by Bryan Walsh
- The Unfulfilled Promise of Obamacare by Kate Pickert
- Tom Clancy: Master of the Military Thriller by Colin Powell
Read more: