Please, please stop saying that the government shutdown is because “both sides won’t compromise.” This is simply not the case. The Affordable Care Act is the result of HUGE compromises on the part of Democrats. The ACA is a very conservative, capitalist-friendly bill that was conceived by a conservative think tank and initially implemented by a fiscally-conservative, Republican governor.
And yet, having gotten everything they wanted in the bill, Republicans now want to know why Democrats won’t “compromise” with them while they are holding the federal government hostage.
Imagine that you and one other person make up the board of your homeowner’s association. You think the nice old lady who plants flowers around the entrance sign should get a little compensation for her efforts. You think she should get $100. The other board member thinks she should get nothing. You two “compromise” on $20.
After it’s settled, voted on by the entire homeowners association, and then also approved by the local gardening club for good measure, the “compromise” amount (on which you conceded nearly everything – it’s basically a token amount compared to what you initially tried to accomplish) is written into the association budget.
Then, the following year, the other board member refuses to sign ANY checks to ANY vendors – including the ones who have already provided services to the association – because you won’t “compromise” with them on the $20 you had already decided on the previous year – as the result of considerable compromise on your part.
This isn’t about “compromise” – this is about Republican grandstanding on their bankrupt ideology of protecting the very wealthiest elites at the expense of hard-working American citizens.