It really wouldn't have been that hard to make the cuts & raise the revenues needed to avoid this past week's disaster. Tip O'Neil & Reagan would have done this in their sleep. It was all kinds of different in the '80's and prior to that; those were the days when the "base" took a backseat to compromise when it came to the good of the people as a whole.
Now, it's only about the base, 24x7. Obama & Boehner & the rest would rather posture and get high marks from their respective stalwarts for "holding their ground" than actually fix a problem.
For this, I blame Rush Limbaugh (and subsequently every idiot talk radio & cable pundit that followed him). He is relentless about the evils of "compromise", and how traitorous those who engage in it are. All to a chorus of "ditto's".
We reward this behavior, and get the gov't we deserve as a result.