Politics

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Wearing an American flag, Lino Pedres, joined others in a march outside the building where the state Republican Party Headquarters is located calling on the GOP to support immigration reform, in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. More than two dozen immigrant rights advocates, students, labor and community activists gathered for the protest. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

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Expanded background checks on gun purchases, immigration reform and other key goals for the president over the next three years threaten to be crowded out and ultimately relegated to the political graveyard if President Obama is unable to make a deal with Republicans on the government shutdown and debt ceiling. (associated press)

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** FILE ** Tom Schatz, President of the Council for Citizens against Government Waste, center, accompanied by Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., left, and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009, to discuss their worst spending projects of the 111th Congress. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

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Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, speaks with reporters as he leaves a news conference with House Republicans at the Capitol on Thursday. The government shutdown has moved things back into the wheelhouse of Mr. Ryan. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Rep. Paul Ryan wrote an op-ed proposing to couple an increase in the government's debt ceiling with "common-sense reforms of the country's entitlement programs and tax code," but grass-roots activists said he failed to mention Obamacare. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, came up with a solution that would allow the president to request a debt limit increase. To reject it, Congress would have to pass legislation that the president could veto, meaning it would take a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress to stop an increase. (Associated Press)

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The Republican gubernatorial candidate, Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T Cuccinelli II (right), answers a question from University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers during a forum at the university on Thursday. Recent polls have shown Democrat Terry McAuliffe leading. (Associated Press)