John Boehner's New Headache  —  Catastrophic.  Brutal.  Dangerous.  Terrifying.  —  That's how lawmakers, the administration and market analysts have described the prospect of default if Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit on the nation's $16.7 trillion debt by the Treasury Department's Oct. 17 deadline.

Democratic cracks open in debt-limit fight  —  For the past several weeks, Senate Democrats and the White House have shown a remarkable amount of unity in the controversial fight surrounding the debt ceiling.  —  Then came shutdown Day Seven.  —  Just as top Senate Democrats began to lay …

GOP Proposes New Supercommittee to Resolve Impasse (Updated)  —  Updated 12:12 p.m. |  House Republicans will bring to the floor a bill to create a bipartisan, bicameral committee to address the current fiscal impasse that has shut down much of the government and threatens a debt default.

Stewart to Sebelius on health care law “Am I a stupid man?”  —  (CNN) - “The Daily Show” took a more serious turn Monday night when host Jon Stewart introduced his guest for the evening, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.  —  Sebelius, who has been on a media blitz …

Insurers Getting Faulty Data From U.S. Health Exchanges  —  Insurers are getting faulty and incomplete data from the new U.S.-run health exchange, which may mean some Americans won't be covered even after they sign up for an insurance plan.  —  While it's not clear how widespread the problem is …

HealthCare.gov simple, user-friendly  —  Engineers are working day and night on upgrades to cope with high demand.  —  CONNECT  —  When the Health Insurance Marketplace opened last week, demand was so high, it exceeded even optimists' expectations.  On the first day alone …

The Attorney General tries to reverse a Supreme Court ruling by the back door.  —  For Eric Holder, American racial history is frozen in the 1960s.  The Supreme Court ruled in June that a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is no longer justified due to racial progress …

Weekly Drop in U.S. Economic Confidence Largest Since '08  —  Decline of 12 points to -34 is largest since Lehman Brothers collapsed  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans' confidence in the economy has deteriorated more in the past week during the partial government shutdown …

Biker cop joined in SUV beatdown, hit vehicle  —  Alexian Lien after he was attacked by motorcyclists on Sept., 28, 2013  —  An off-duty undercover cop who had claimed he took no active role as fellow bikers pulled a Manhattan dad from his SUV and beat him to a pulp was actually pounding …

Capitol Hill lawyer chosen as Pentagon's ‘Guantánamo closer’  —  The Obama administration has chosen a former U.S. Marine and seasoned congressional lawyer to serve as the special envoy for Guantánamo closure at the Defense Department, the Miami Herald has learned.

Why the Government Shutdown Isn't Anywhere Near Over—in 1 Graph  —  Two parties, divided by a common loathing  —  Americans are perfectly, identically, symmetrically split on whether the GOP is justified in demanding major changes to Obamacare in exchange for funding the rest of the government, according to a new Pew Research poll.

Crisis?  What Crisis?  —  How House Republicans are convincing themselves that defaulting on the country's debt wouldn't be the disaster everybody claims it'd be.  —  For a couple of days last week, Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer was the Republican face of the government shutdown.

POLITICO poll: Government shutdown backlash boosts Terry McAuliffe  —  Democrat Terry McAuliffe has opened up a significant lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the Virginia governor's race amid broad public disapproval of the federal government shutdown, according to a POLITICO poll of the 2013 gubernatorial election.