Why this shutdown isn't like 1995

NEW YORK: The political battlefield of the current government shutdown looks a lot like the last big shutdown of 1995. But major changes within the Republican Party in Congress - a weaker leadership, the demise of moderates and two decades of gerrymandering - could make this year's endgame far harder.

Then as now, a rebellious Republican Congress used a budget bill to set up a deliberate confrontation with a Democratic president over spending priorities. GOP militants and radicals in the House - today's wing nuts - bet that gridlock, disarray and the embarrassment of a shutdown would force the White House to give in.