The "crisis" which now comes annually is a manufactured one brought to us by the Republican Party. Unless the get the cuts they want and the spending they want....they threaten a shutdown based on the false premise that people won't miss the government and the myriad services provided. Which of course will be missed the second we can't have em due to a shut down. A variant of this is a shutdown will make us vulnerable to attack from abroad....therefore the military is exempt while everything else is defunded.... I'm a veteran and am never in favor of stopping payments to the military. But to be clear...our brace men and women are not any more noble or deserving than other citizens. I resent them being used this way. Spending should just continue as I'd....until a new budget is agreed upon. That's how it used to be done without all these histrionics.