Quite a bit more than that seems to be shut down. And those that haven't have seen their staffs reduced to impractical levels. These kind of things are headlined in a lot of online publications.

The point about the stimulus package seems to be a non-sequitor. That might be a contributing factor to the "debt ceiling" debate, but the current shutdown revolves around separate issues.

Bwa-ha-ha, I just leave it here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/173045683/CRL-100313-14151

Thanks goes to:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-03/treasury-warns-default-impact-could-last-generation

I mean they've really considered the possibility, or simply trying to scare people?

The latter, I'd assume. But at this point I'm starting to believe they are petulant enough to actually do it.

The nice thing about bureaucracy in a time of crisis is that they almost always have contingency plans for every eventuality, so they are certainly considering the possibility (the bad thing about bureaucracy in non-crisis times is they make you adhere to a bunch of apparently silly rules to avert said worst-case-scenario). The Treasury Dept putting the message out there is likely trying to educate people on why default would be such a bad thing, to try and generate public awareness to force a solution.

Catastrophic is an apt description, though. The global financial markets are underpinned by the stability of T-bills, and there's no other single financial institution with the ability to take the place of American treasury securities (Europe is still recovering, whilst among BRIC, Brazil and Russia are too untrustworthy, India's having big currency problems at the moment and China's system isn't built for such a major integration, aside from all the cooked books on China's asset sheet...). If American treasury securities go down, then the 2010s will be the 1930s redux and the clock on global economic integration will be set back 80 years.

^Well, there're possibilities. Before that unfortunate case with alleged sexual assault DSK of IMF was a big advocate of a 'central bank of central banks' idea. A set of regional currencies is a possibility as well, even though that what you call a 'set back' (I prefer the word 'reset'). But at this point it doesn't reallly matter what come after this, because it looks like it will happen anyway default or not... 'Bolivar won't carry double' under any circumstances.

From Indiana Republican Congressman Martin Stutzman:

"We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

More or less sums up this whole situation.

They sound like the South during the reconstruction^

Obama sounds like Lincoln

I got spitting mad at some Republican Texan congressman who was trying to score political points by bullying a park ranger for keeping the WWII monuments closed (it's a liability thing, people). Posed as a constituent and sent him a scathing but well-worded (meaning no cursing or threats of harm).

I've been trying to be more even-tempered about politics, so fewer things have been making me really mad lately, but damn. The guy basically mocked a poor low-end park ranger who was just trying to do his job, knowing full well the ranger couldn't say anything back to him for fear of said job (which he likely isn't even being paid to do at the moment!). How horrible.

I'm inclined to think eliminating gerrymandering would solve much of our problems.

Agreed, but Republicans would never agree to that. It's what helped them keep a good amount of seats in the House, even though Democrats had more votes than them.