let's consider just one department, the U S Dept of Agriculture, where the Secretary Tom Vilsack has done what he can to try to keep programs going. Let's start with the school lunch program:  at the end of the month the schools will be relying on their own resources to fund the lunch and breakfast programs with the understanding that when and if the budget gets funded they will be reimbursed for
3 by rss@dailykos.com ... / 20min 
So you have this neighbor who has been making your life hell. First he tied you up with a spurious lawsuit; you’re both suffering from huge legal bills. Then he threatened bodily harm to your family. Now, however, he says he’s willing to compromise: He’ll call off the lawsuit, which is to his advantage as well as yours. But in return you must give him your car. Oh, and he’ll stop threatening your family — but only for a week, after which the threats will resume.
 Not much of an offer, is it? But here’s the kicker: Your neighbor’s relatives, who have been egging him on, are furious that he didn’t also demand that you kill your dog.
And now you understand the current state of budget negotiations.
That is the beginning of The Dixiecrat Solution, Krugman's Monday New York Times  column.
The current US political crisis has serious world-wide financial implications, as those meeting in DC for the IMF and the World Bank made clear.
Krugman takes us back to the New Deal, when the Democrats had nominal control of the Congress, but still had to deal with their Dixiecrats, a situation I might note that Lyndon Johnson also had to face.  As Krugman points out, it was a combination of Dixiecrats and