House Speaker John Boehner remained defiant in the face of a government shutdown. In a press conference early Tuesday, which barely lasted over one minute, he didn't even mention the elephant in the room by name.
“The House has made its position known very clearly. We believe that we should fund the government and we think that ought to be basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare."
He continued, "The Senate has continued to reject our offers but under the Constitution there’s a way to resolve this process and that is to go to conference and talk through your differences. And I would hope that the Senate would accept our offer to go to conference and discuss this so we can resolve this for the American people.”
Boehner's office also named a group of mostly veteran Republican lawmakers to serve as conferees to hammer out a resolution with the Senate: Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, Rep. Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan, Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Rep. John Carter of Texas, Rep. Ander Crenshaw of Florida, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey and Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia. None of them came into office in 2010, the year of the Tea Party.