[fblike]
Last Thursday, President Barack Obama signed an agreement to end the first government shutdown in nearly twenty years. The shutdown, which lasted sixteen days, coincided with another debt ceiling crisis since the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority needed to be raised by October 17th. The threat of not raising the debt ceiling is what compelled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to craft a compromise piece of legislation that passed the Senate and House last week. However, their compromise creates the possibility of another government shutdown in January and another debt ceiling crisis in February.
While I wrote a topic brief about the looming government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis several weeks ago, I felt that it was necessary for extempers to get a gauge for the fallout of these two latest battles since the shutdown dominated American airwaves for the last two weeks. This topic brief will focus on the deal reached by Senator Reid and Senator McConnell, the political fallout of the recent shutdown battle, and the economic fallout of the government shutdown and current austerity measures.
Readers are also encouraged to use the links below and in the related R&D to bolster their files about this topic.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany 
By October 1st Congress must pass legislation to fund the annual expenses of the federal government for the next fiscal year. If it does not, a government shutdown will ensue where many government operations will cease, although programs that do not receive their funding directly from the Treasury, provide for national defense, or conduct essential services will continue. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) hoped to avoid a showdown with the White House in what would be the first fiscal showdown since 2011, but Tea Party Republicans have pressured he and other members of the House Republican leadership to pass a spending measure that would fund the government in the short-term and deny funding for Obamacare, which is set to begin on October 1st with the opening of signups on state insurance exchanges. President Obama and Senate Democrats argue that the spending measure passed by the House is a non-starter and if a compromise is not reached by October 1st it would result in the first government shutdown since 1995-1996. The battle over the shutdown also touches on the nation’s credit rating, since the debt ceiling will have to be raised to avoid a potentially damaging default.
Here is today’s premium R&D to accompany