The political as well as economic environment today is far removed from the days of previous shut-downs. In the mid-90s, the rare similarities to today were a Democrat in office dueling with Conservatives in Congress on the heels of liberal spending and failure to produce government budgets. What has changed is the birth of the Tea Party, a citizenry highly disgruntled with the man in the Oval Office (to include his own constituency), and a deficit as well as national debt unmatched in the history of the country.
