terrorism is defined as "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes". with republicans threatening not only to force the US government to shut down in order to defund Obamacare, but also threatening to default on the US debt if they don't also get Obamacare defunded by not voting to raise the debt ceiling, there is no other way to decribe these tacticts except as terrorism. it's a hostage situation, and the republicans are willing to shoot the hostage in order to make their point.

still, i have to ask: why is it so important to deny people access to affordable health insurance? republicans are supposed to be the party of business interests and Obamacare is a boon for health insurance companies, and the health care industry as a whole. it's bad enough that there are republicans at the state level who are head over heels besides themselves with glee at obstructing the law (http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/jay-bookman/2013/aug/29/ga-insurance-chief-brags-about-sabotage-obamacare/), now we have republicans at the federal level trying to hold the entire country hostage to the whims of the tinfoil hat crowd. either let the law fail on its own, or offer an alternative. so far the only alternatives offered are "don't get insurance and just go to the ER", and the perennial favorite "tax cuts for rich people".

Obamacare passed both houses of Congress, survived a supreme court challenge and is the law of the land. the 42 votes (and counting) to try to repeal it are nothing more than a group of crybabies who are basically saying they're going to hold their breath until they turn blue in order to get their way. and when the government shuts down they're going to try to pretend that wasn't what they wanted all along and that they were the reasonable ones. at some point it would be nice if the republicans would stop listening to the crazies and get back to actually governing, but at this point the lunatics were already given control of the asylum and they don't seem like they're willing to give it back.