It's a well-established fact among readers of this site that the purpose of Republican governance is to break government. It's been the primary strategy since they marketed it as the Reagan Revolution. At the executive level it involves appointing people to cabinet level positions who have undermining that department's original purpose; consider James Watt as Secretary of the Interior.
And the systematic inversion succeeded through the narratives that called black white. More recently Republicans dropped the doublespeak for more brazen obstruction and opposition for overwhelmingly popular programs, policies, and governmental purposes.
Within that shift from deceitfully to more openly radical politics came the shutdown of government to deny millions of people access to good medical care.
It's both a great relief and a spark of optimism for me that the poison has not paralyzed the body politic:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
"By a nearly four-to-one margin, Americans believe GOP lawmakers in Congress aren’t concerned with the nation’s best interests."