The muddling around blaming Democrats must stop. There was only one necessary element to this: a Republican strategy to force spending cuts that relied on taking our nation's full faith and credit ransom.
Our leaders may have made the mistake of letting these people have the chance to pull this on us, but the Republicans never had to take that chance. They never had to choose to do this, except in their demented, narrow, ideological political perspective.
Let's not mince words or spread blame. The blame should, and must, go one way, so that when election day comes, people know that the only safe vote is for a Democratic Congressperson.