The most conservative tea party-backed members of the House GOP have been the center of attention in the ongoing fiscal drama, but the key to a solution in the coming days may be a different Republican bloc altogether.
It's a group of a few dozen lawmakers from swing districts and suburbs mostly in the Northeast and California.
They are Republicans such as Rep. Devin Nunes, who represents Fresno, California. "I think it's moronic to shut down the government over this. I don't understand it. I never have," he said Monday after House leaders unveiled their latest plan to link a bill to keep the government funded to a delay of a central plank of the federal health care law, the requirement that individuals purchase health insurance.