Operative GD writes in from somewhere that favors a lot of IT service processes regarding this post:

Sadly, you have managed to touch on one of the few subjects I actually know a bit about.  Root cause analysis.  See, to do proper root cause analysis, you must first define your problem.  

Or totally make one up – ‘Puter likes doing this just to mess with the Czar.

Typically, a problem is defined as a subject which has a defect and some optional modifiers.  In this case, I would define our problem as “The government (subject) will shutdown (the defect).”  We could throw in all sorts of optional modifiers about when and how this shutdown will occur, but in this case they won’t really aid in our analysis, so I skipped them.  Next, we ask a simple question.  

Strap yourselves in we’ve got some engineering going on here.

Why did that subject have a defect?  When we get the answer, we ask why again, continuing until we reach the root cause or causes that are actionable.  This is a very simple technique for very simple problems, which this is, and does not replace more effective root cause analysis techniques for complex issues.  Using this simple process, we end up with a simple text tree that looks like this:

The government will shutdown.

Why  —->  Because the 111th congress failed to pass a new budget as constitutionally mandated.  (while I agree with your GORTness that this is the proximate cause, it may not be the root cause… continue)

      Why not  —->  Because they were afraid.

                 Why  —->  Because after passing Obamacare and all their other pet projects, they were pretty certain that the electorate was going to run them out on a rail if they tried any more of that crap.

                          Why  —->  Because the electorate was finally paying attention

                                   Why  —->  Because… well, republicans and tea party people and Sarah Palin!

And there you have it!  The true root cause of the government shutdown is the tea party movement and Sarah Palin.  No need to thank me.

Keep on Gormogonin’

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.