Ezra Klein, “Don't Forget What the Shutdown is Really About,” The Washington Post:

1) This is all about stopping a law that increases taxes on rich people and reduces subsidies to private insurers in Medicare in order to help low-income Americans buy health insurance. That's it. That's why the Republican Party might shut down the government and default on the debt.

Andrew Sullivan, “'What Kind of World Do These People Live In?'”  The Dish

Are you, Republicans, prepared to say that the countless working Americans who cannot now afford any of this should carry on without it indefinitely? People only have one life, you know. It can erode pretty quickly. On what moral grounds do you consign people to this fate when it is currently unnecessary? ... What hallucinating, self-serving monsters have you become?

Jonathan Chait, “How to Depose John Boehner,” New York Magazine:

Shutting down the federal government is not, by a far sight, the most dangerous, cruel, or ideologically blinkered thing the House Republicans have done. But it is surely the most baffling. They have taken an issue, broad disapproval of Obamacare, where they enjoy a modest but persistent advantage and turned it into an issue — shut down the government over Obamacare — where they stand at an overwhelming, three-to-one disadvantage. They stepped on the message of what’s sure to be Obamacare’s glitchiest day. They’ve followed a course of action their leaders know full well stands no chance of success yet carries massive downside risks. For an act of comparable cost-benefit political stupidity, you have to look to politicians who screw interns or hookers, and even that has a biologically explicable motivation.

The New York Times Editorial Board, “John Boehner's Shutdown”:

At any point, Mr. Boehner could have stopped it. Had he put on the floor a simple temporary spending resolution to keep the government open, without the outrageous demands to delay or defund the health reform law, it could easily have passed the House with a strong majority — including with sizable support from Republican members, many of whom are aware of how badly this collapse will damage their party. ... But Mr. Boehner refused.

Jon Stewart, “The Daily Show”:

This is not a game of chicken [as described in the mainstream media]. This is when someone is driving to work, and there's a car coming directly at them in their lane. That's not a game of chicken. That's an asshole causing a head-on collision.

Black Canseco, Twitter:

Everytime a White #GOP-er says “#Obamacare is like Slavery” I try to picture my ancestors going, “Man this is like healthcare!” #tcot

— Black Canseco (@BlackCanseco) October 1, 2013

The New York Daily News:

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