A lot of people are wondering "what possible endgame does the Tea Party and their GOP enablers have?"
That's a really good question. Shutting down the government is only the first part, and that is merely a means to an end.
I submit that the next step is two weeks from now where they default on the debt (yes, we will NOT get a debt ceiling raise) and the President will have to resort to extraordinary measures.
We've cataloged those possible extraordinary measures before, but in short, I think either a $1T coin (or a bunch of $100B coins) will be minted.
Shortly thereafter the actual wet dream of the Republican Party will appear: Impeachment of a Sitting President (and that black guy that they hate soooooo much).
They're trying to engineer a situation in which they can do a complete do-over on Newt's Folly, but against a black guy instead of Bill Clinton.
The further they can get, the more they can milk from their contributors, and maybe, JUST MAYBE they can pull it off. (Or at least that's what they'll be telling themselves. After all, they really thought they'd win in 2012, despite the polling.)
Somebody prove to me that I'm wrong about the Tea Party and their world view. They clearly don't give a rat's posterior about the country or the economy, just power.
(Aside: I don't think a CR will appear before the debt ceiling crisis, but if it does, it will be on a Friday night.)