Republicans or RepubliKlans.

So, the Republicans have closed down the government, as they have been threatening to do, by refusing to pass the budget unless the Affordable Healthcare Act,also known as Obamacare, which was supposed to come into effect from 1 October, was postponed for a year. Obama has secured his second term in office and is not allowed to stand any more. Lately his popularity rating has been dropping. First there was Syria where he appeared unsure of what to do. He had promised to use force against the Assad regime if it used chemical weapons but when it did Obama asked Congress to decide whether to attack. In the event a chance remark by the Secretary of State, John Kerry allowed the Russians to seize the initiative. Then President Dilma Roussef of Brazil cancelled her state visit to the US later this year because she was enraged by the National Security Agency spying on her country, including her own emails and the Brazilian energy company, Petrobras. In 2011 Obama had capitulated timidly to Republican refusal to raise the debt ceiling by agreeing to a sequester which cut $85 billion from the budget, especially from the military. This time he was not going to give in to their blackmail and become a lame duck, only one year into his second term. The Act was passed by Congress and supported by the Supreme Court. So the ethical way to overturn it would be to win the next election and then pass a law to abolish the Act. But the Republicans are not prepared to wait that long because they have seen a similar law, passed by a Republican Governor, Mitt Romney, becoming a huge success in Massachusetts. Once the Act becomes a success a future Republican administration would not be able to amend or abolish it so they linked the budget to the postponement of the Act by one year. For Obama this is his legacy and he seems prepared to dig in. Hence the stoppage. The last time this happened was in 1995-96 when Bill Clinton was president. This time it is much more poisonous. A large number of Republicans are sure of winning their seats because of gerrymandering but may lose their primaries if they go against the Tea Party faction. The Tea Party fanatics have never been able to accept a black man in the White House. They still seem to be fighting the civil war as they all come from the former Confederate states. As did the Ku Klux Klan.