The Blame Game

A s The Times went to press Tuesday, the federal gov- ernment was shut down and politicians of all stripes were playing the blame game. So were newspaper editorial writers.

Some pundits think linking Obamacare to a federal budget extension is a form of hostage taking. Others deem it a totally responsible reaction to the will of the people.

We won't jump on any of those bandwagons, mostly because there wouldn't be enough room here once we got started. But we took a few minutes to search some internet news sites, so we could share some of the wide variety of thoughts and opinions we found. Here goes: We've backed a delay in the law because it isn't ready for launch. But we wish the effort to kill Obamacare hadn't out- paced larger concerns about existing programs - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security - that already risk insolvency.

Once Republicans and Democrats stop grandstanding and blaming each other for the current crisis, we think there's an easy solution to this impasse: Don't force individuals to sign up for coverage this year. Suspend that mandate for a year, just as employers were relieved for a year of their man- date to provide insurance.

- Chicago Tribune

As the government shutdown was approaching, many Americans did what comes naturally in matters regarding Washington: They ignored it, and assumed that the squab- bling politicians would work things out at the last minute.

Now that the shutdown has gone into effect, many people are inclined toward a second default position: Blame every- one.

Both positions fit the dismally low view that Americans have for government in general, and Congress in particular.

In this case, however, the "they're all bums" reaction is off-base. This shutdown is not the result of the two parties acting equally irresponsibly. It is the product of an increas- ingly radicalized Republican Party, controlled by a deeply disaffected base that demands legislative hostage-taking in an effort to get what it has not been able to attain through the electoral process or the judiciary.

- USA Today

Asking the president to postpone the individual mandate one year, as he has done for the employer mandate, and requiring the Congress to obtain their health insurance on the same terms the ACA requires for ordinary Americans are quite reasonable. The president's refusal to accept any changes in the ACA and special treatment for politicians is tyranny.

- Fox News

We've criticized GOP Senator Ted Cruz for his strategy to make defunding ObamaCare a requirement of funding the rest of government. He and his allies know that Mr. Obama can never agree to that, and even millions of Americans who oppose ObamaCare don't agree with his shutdown ultima- tum. It risks political damage for the House and Senate GOP in 2014 even as Mr. Cruz builds his email list for 2016.

Yet it takes two to tangle, and Mr. Obama is as much to blame for the partisan pileup as Mr. Cruz. This is a President who is eager to negotiate with dubiously elected Iranian mul- lahs but can't abide compromise with duly elected leaders of Congress. He refuses to negotiate at all over an increase in the federal debt limit, claiming this has never happened. Like so much that Mr. Obama says, he knows this is false. His own staff suggested the spending sequester during the 2011 debt debate, and Democratic Congresses have used the debt limit to extract concessions from Republican Presidents.

- The Wall Street Journal

We always thought it took two to "tango" but, whateverhellip; Hopefully, by the time you read this, our federal government will be back up and running, as efficiently as ever.