Government Shutdown Day 12: Wait a Minute... Obama Rejects Republican Proposals

The stock market added more than 500 points off its Wednesday lows through the end of the week, believing that the pols in Washington had gotten their collective acts together enough to begin talking about a deal that would re-open the government and avoid a debt ceiling impasse. Most media outlets (including Money Daily) had expected a deal to be worked out by Monday.

That seems to be seriously in doubt, now.

As of Saturday afternoon, Speaker of the House, John Boehner, told his Republican caucus that the president has rejected all of his proposals.

The Washington Post reports that senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R) and Harry Reid (D) are beginning talks aimed at ending the stalemate over the government closure and raising the debt ceiling.

Even though nearly 70% of Americans (proven wrong, time and again) blame the Republican Party for shutting down the government, Thomas Sowell correctly points out that the Democrats are chiefly to blame.

So far, nothing "catastrophic" - as promised - has occurred, but, we're still only less than two weeks into this mess, which should have been handled months ago. We technically breached the debt ceiling in May, but treasury secretary Jack Lew has been raiding federal pension funds and using other "extraordinary measures" since.

The government hasn't had an actual budget since 2007, passing only continuing resolutions since then.

It's NOT over. Stay tuned.