With the deadline for a federal government shutdown growing near, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner had a familiar choice to make: embrace something that looked like a compromise with Democrats, antagonizing conservatives in his party, or give in to their demands and guarantee a showdown with President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.
On Wednesday, Boehner announced that he had chosen to stick with his own.
Rather than rallying Republicans to a less-confrontational plan to keep the government running past Sept. 30, Boehner threw in with the boisterous, rebellious wing of the House GOP. He set a vote for Friday that would simultaneously provide funding to keep the government open while stripping away money to implement portions of Obama's health care law.