text: "ONCE UPON A TIME, the GOP changed a House Rule to guarantee a government shutdown, (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/the-house-gop-s-little-rule-change-that-guaranteed-a-shutdown), fulfilling a plan months in the making.(http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?pagewanted=all)  This plan was the culmination of some 40+ votes to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act, which GOP members and leadership continually stuck to as their reason for not budging during the first days of the shutdown(http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-10-04/politics/42692181_1_funds-government-operations-government-shutdown-debt-ceiling), despite the fact the healthcare exchanges went into effect October 1st anyway.  That is, that WAS the argument, until it was clear they weren't getting anywhere, and instead, the GOP argument started to center on the debt ceiling.(http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/republicans-gop-obamacare-government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-98102.html).  Meanwhile, on the ""left"" side of the Chamber,  Democratic members continually tried to bring to the floor a vote on a ""clean"" budget as a compromise to reopen government. This budget - at/below GOP-proposed levels passed by the Senate earlier this year, had the professed bipartisan support of a majority of the House, ((http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/10/06/majority-of-house-appears-to-support-clean-cr/) but GOP leadership refused to bring it to the floor, and maneuvered to block any member who tried raising it.   Then, the GOP agreed to raise the debt ceiling, but not open the government, as their ""compromise,""(http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+(RSS%3A+Politics))....but only if it was a 6 week debt ceiling agreement...and only if was tied to conversations about how to fix our long term deficit...and only if those conversations were about cuts, and not revenues.(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-greenstein/while-government-remains_b_4066052.html)   And then, they called that tactic moving ""halfway."" (http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/10/10/boehner_we_re_meeting_halfway_on_what_obama_wants.html).  What's next? Who knows what the GOP will do.  But make no mistake: People across this country- children(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/government-shutdown-wic_n_4073146.html), military families(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57606695/government-shutdown-hitting-veterans-military-families-hard/), seniors(http://abc10up.com/govt-shutdown-stops-food-delivery-seniors/), and many more are being hurt by this shutdown....with more to be impacted the longer this goes on. (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/10/2761511/food-stamps-automatic-cuts/).  This is a manufactured politically motivated crisis that never had to start, and could end tonight if the GOP leadership would just let us vote on a clean budget. Let's truly make this a ""once upon a time"" story, and end this shutdown. #DemandAVote"