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.

Exchange launch turns into inexcusable mess: Our view  —  Health sites generate more error messages than coverage.  —  CONNECT  —  Over the first four days the new online health insurance exchanges were open last week, more than 8 million people visited them, according to the Obama administration.

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 …

The risk to the GOP House majority  —  In the current shutdown, John Boehner might be acting out of fear of losing his position.  If he doesn't appease the hardliners who are willing to take the government and economy over the brink for their goals, he could be ejected from the Speaker's seat.

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.

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 …

A Married Mom and Dad Really Do Matter: New Evidence from Canada  —  There is a new and significant piece of evidence in the social science debate about gay parenting and the unique contributions that mothers and fathers make to their children's flourishing.

‘Just disgusting’: Outrage after shutdown delays payment for families of fallen  —  In what veterans groups call an outrageous slight after the ultimate sacrifice, the shuttered federal government is withholding a $100,000 payment normally wired to relatives of soldiers killed at war.

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 …

AWKward: WH adviser Dan Pfeiffer apologizes for ‘horrendous’ N-word tweet … White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer is well on his way to having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. … Dude! … Not fast enough! … After the typo was brought to his attention, Pfeiffer apologized and deleted the tweet.

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 …

Congress losing out to Zombies, Wall Street, and...Hipsters  —  There's been no shortage of polls out in the last few days showing that Congress has a poor approval rating and we'll add to the pile- we find that only 8% of voters approve of the job it's doing to 86% who disapprove.