No, that's not right

Daniel J. Mitchell of The Cato Institute tries to explain why the GOP in Congress is running scared of a government shutdown over the budget and deficit and their idiotic short-sighted budget cuts:

Are Republicans Winning the Budget Battle but Losing the Budget War?

and they say:

The elephant in the living room, of course, is the threat of a government shutdown. Republicans seem terrified that they will get blamed if there is a stalemate and this leads to a shutdown of the non-essential parts of the government. And they are terrified of this outcome even if they have approved a budget and the stalemate exists solely because Harry Reid has blocked their budget in the Senate and/or Barack Obama has vetoed their budget.

Let's rephrase that. The House GOP approved a RIDICULOUS budget and Harry Reid (and the Democrats) have not allowed the RIDICULOUS budget to even come up for a vote, because it is indeed RIDICULOUS to try and score political points with ill-considered, ruinous budget cuts solely to discretionary spending.