Shutdown Needs to End

On October 3, 2013, The Editorial Board for USA Today published Why shutdown needs to end now: Our View This editorial talks about a number of issues that have surfaced as a result of the Government Shutdown. The consequences of the shutdown have ranged from minimal annoyances to more serious ones such as kids suffering from cancer not being able to access clinical trials at the national Health Institutes, to foreign leaders wondering whether the United States can be trusted to negotiate anything requiring congressional approval. And it was also estimated that a shutdown of a few days will reduce the U.S economic growth by 2%.  I feel the Editorial board is pointing all fingers towards the Republicans as the main instigators of the shutdown: the product of an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, that demands legislative hostage-taking in an effort to get what it has not been able to attain by the usual.
To me the Editorial Board got its point across (The Republicans are being childish). For generations, U.S. leaders have sought to portray an image of strength and probity as they pursued causes ranging from standing up to tyranny, to playing the role of honest broker, to creating democratic models that others could emulate now they are portraying an image of chaos and foolishness. The shutdown proves congress incapable keeping the government running and paying its bills and it undermines the American brand abroad.