As budget impasse looms, Tea Party plans rally outside Capitol on Thursday

The Tea Party is apparently calling a rally for this coming Thursday in Washington to protest the high level of government spending and debt. Are we headed for a shutdown? Would it really be that bad? It would be nice if the government actually saved money from the temporary shutdown.

Senior Democratic officials involved in high-level efforts to bring House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House to a budget agreement said that while some progress had been made toward an accord on an overall level of spending cuts, the parties remained divided on the final figure and had to resolve the fate of ideologically charged policy provisions demanded by House conservatives.

Some senior Republicans, after relying on House Democrats to help pass the most recent short-term measure, are also uneasy about having to team up with Democrats again to pass any compromise that dips too far below the $61 billion in spending reductions endorsed by the House for the current fiscal year. Senate Democrats want to wring some of the savings out of mandatory spending programs like Medicare, an approach Republicans are resisting. . . .