(WASHINGTON) — It's like October 2013 all over again.
Unless Congress passes a bill to authorize funding for government agencies by midnight Thursday, the nation would be faced with another potentially catastrophic shutdown.
Unlike the partial shutdown from 14 months ago instigated by Republicans over the Affordable Care Act, this time it's mainly Democrats who want to sabotage the $1.1 trillion spending bill.
What's got Democrats in a tizzy are provisions tacked onto the legislation that would gut the Dodd-Frank law on banking regulations that they claim would put the nation back in the precarious position of September 2008 that almost sank the world's financial institutions.
On top of that, Democrats are upset with new rules that would allow wealthy donors to contribute ten times the current limit of $32,000 to political parties.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called that provision "destructive" to both the middle class and democracy in general.
Adding to the crisis is anywhere from 40 to 60 Tea Party-leaning Republicans who are unhappy that the spending bill doesn't withhold funds from the Department of Homeland Security in opposition to President Obama's executive action on immigration reform.
House Speaker John Boehner, who vowed previously that there would be no government shutdown, has his work cut out for him Thursday.
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