...Picture it.  It was the middle 1990s.  Kurt Cobain still breathed.  Courtney Love still made sense.  People wore flannel on top of their flannel.  Britney Spears was a Mouseketeer and a virgin.  Some people still carried pocket pagers, known as "beepers."  Well, only drug dealers.  Pay phones existed.  The rapper Ice-T was an unlikely candidate for starring in a Law and Order spin-off.

Also, non-essential services of the federal government were shut down because President Bill Clinton (known then as the country's "first black president" -- these were strange times when things were said that would not be said now) would not sign the spending bill put forward by Newt Gingrich and his House Republicans.  Says Wikipedia:

"Clinton's approval rating fell significantly during the shutdown. According to media commentators, this indicated that the general public blamed the president for the government shutdown.  However, once it had ended his approval ratings rose to their highest since his election."

It was, as I recall, a pretty existential moment for the U.S. government. Partisanship had grown so fierce that the government couldn't even keep Yellowstone or the Center for Disease Control operating.  We've had worse since.  In 2011, the U.S. nearly defaulted on its debt for no reason.  Now we face the "Fiscal Cliff," which is really more of a fiscal slope.  The full effects of the spending cuts and tax increases that begin on January 1st, will be felt over time, not all on day one.

It would be smart economics, in the midst of a slow recovery, to not have this happen at all.  If economists ran the country, they'd probably push for above average spending and below average taxes at least until unemployment fell below 6%.  But, alas.

Now we have John Boehner giving up and leaving the fiscal resolution in the hands of the senate and minority leader Mitch McConnell, who seems to have no answers:

"We have had no outreach from Dems here or at the White House," McConnell’s spokesman Don Stewart told TPM by email Wednesday. "So we really don’t know what their plans are."

Back in the 90s, the government shutdown was a big deal.  It has faded in significance.  I suspect that when we look back at the Fiscal Cliff, if we do indeed head down the slope for a time, that we'll feel the same way.  Obama should be comfortable not compromising.  It worked for Clinton.