Do other national governments come up against "shutdowns" if budget agreements can't be reached? I think it would be embarrassing for tourists from other countries trying to visit the Smithsonian museums - sorry, you can't come in today, we're closed because we're broke. Same thing with the National Park Service. And the NIH - let's just stop working in the middle of clinical trials; we're out of money so we can't continue searching for cures for things like cancer and AIDS. And another question, why are they trying to "defund" the Affordable Care Act at the 11th hour? It seems too late for that. Yes, it's going to be messy for a long while until everything gets sorted out. It's not without flaws. I just find all of this extremely confusing and frustrating. They thought the first round of cuts in federal government services would never happen, but it did. Please let's keep a second round from going through.