As the federal government shutdown rolled through the weekend, there were no signs either party was giving in, as lawmakers in the Congress and the White House traded more shots over who is to blame for the ongoing budget impasse.
Republicans in the House plan to push through more mini-funding bills to fund various pieces of the federal government; Democrats say they won't accept those measures, still urging the GOP to agree to a plan to fund the entire government on a short term basis.
Neither side seemed to be in any rush to fix the lapse in funding; the House and Senate were not in session on Sunday, and Saturday's day of work brought about no progress.
In fact, the Senate has not voted on any funding measure since last Tuesday, as Democrats try to turn up the heat on the GOP to approve a "clean" stop gap budget.
"The government is shut down because Speaker Boehner refuses to let the House vote on a bill that was his idea," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"It may not really matter to the White House how long this shutdown lasts, but it certainly matters to the American people," said Speaker John Boehner.
"What we are looking at here again is an Administration – a President – who seems to be unwilling to sit down and talk with us," said Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).
"Mr. Speaker, we must reopen our government and could do so today, this hour," said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD).
Back and forth we go; you get the picture.
Congress remains at odds on the budget, and the government is still shut down.
One thing the House did agree on over the weekend was a bill to ensure that federal employees were paid for their involuntary furlough days, voting 407-0 for that measure.
But that sort of brought up a different question for some of my readers - if you are going to pay all these workers for the time off, then why not just have the government open?
"So we are going to pay furloughed workers???" read one message to me on Twitter. "They might as well go back to work...That makes no sense."
"If they are paid, what's the sense in the furlough?" wrote another.
"So the government is on paid vacation? That's dumb," read another message. "I know it sounds childish, but there's only one word for it. Dumb."
"Hey, they agreed on something!" someone else chimed in.
While that was correct in the House, the bill hasn't gone anywhere yet in the Senate, even though the White House expressed its support.
And for now, no one seems ready to give in.
That raises an even larger question - if lawmakers can't even agree on a seven week stop gap budget plan, how can they deal with larger issues like the debt limit?
Should be another interesting week in the halls of the Congress.
