Writing for the Huffington Post, Ryan Grim starts his article about the impending government shutdown this way:

The United States government is on the verge of shutting down over a dispute about subsidized pap smears, according to sources familiar with the budget negotiations.

He goes on to say that Senator Durbin (D-IL) paraphrases Boehner, who says it’s really the old guard Republicans who want the social issue riders like funding Planned Parenthood to be included and who are refusing to compromise. That would actually make some sense, since they had the White House and both Houses of Congress for six years and never managed to criminalize abortion; they may be thinking this is their last best shot.