The United States Government shutdown will start to hit the people who fought for it:  On Tuesday, the Veterans Affairs Department will shut down regional offices and furlough 7,000 workers who would rather be helping America’s warriors.

“All public access to VBA regional offices and facilities will be suspended,” said Veterans Affairs Department spokeswoman Victoria Dillon.

Congressional conservatives are refusing to pass a stopgap-spending plan without defunding the Affordable Care Act that is in the initial stages of providing low cost health coverage from more than 40 million previously uninsured Americans.  They don’t have the votes to do it legally, thus the extortion.  The republicans are also feared to be planning to default on America’s outstanding debts if they don’t get their way.

And that has America’s two top creditors increasingly worried that the US government shutdown and standoff over the debt could wreak havoc on their trillions of dollars of investments in US Treasury bonds.  Beijing and Tokyo are publicly and privately urging Washington to find a solution.