Martin Longman provides a helpful summary of the current state of affairs. It is pretty complicated.

Shorter version: House speaker John Boehner and senator Ted Cruz each face a crisis. Boehner has to choose between the government defaulting on the debt or allowing a clean continuing resolution and debt ceiling raising bill, and possibly losing his speakership as a result. And Ted Cruz has to choose between stopping any Senate moves to pass those measures or allowing them to go forward and be accused of betraying his Tea Party supporters.

But one can never quite predict what will happen in politics so don’t take any predictions too seriously.

But we can still find ways to laugh.