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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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national lead
What's Boehner's next move?
Speaker of the House John Boehner brought three funding bills to the House floor, and watched as each one went down in flames. It is just the latest battle for the Speaker, who seems a little wary when it comes to taking on members of his own party. Maybe that's because in the past, he paid a hefty price for being seen as doing just that.
"It was only the Democrats that took (the bills) down," said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California.
But if Boehner worked something out with President Barack Obama, and brought it back to the Republican caucus, would he be ousted?
Watch the video above for analysis from Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and CNN's Gloria Borger, Dana Bash, and Jake Tapper.
national lead
GOP congressman: Why wouldn't Democrats want to fund the VA?
Nearly a full 24 hours into a partial government shut down, and the rhetoric has become even more intractable.
CNN polls show most Americans think that lawmakers on all sides of this are acting like spoiled children – which is truly an insult to spoiled children everywhere.
They've all gone home for the night, having achieved nothing all day. In the latest move House Republicans tried and failed to pass targeted, piecemeal bills to reopen parts of the government in the short term, including national parks and claims processing at the department of Veterans Affairs.
"I don't consider funding the Veterans Administration, the GI bills, as piecemeal," said Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy, of California. "If there's elements or places of the government we can agree on, then why punish them?"
McCarthy said Republicans "never wanted to shut the government down."
The shutdown did not stop the health insurance exchanges under Obamacare from opening as scheduled today. And aside from a few error messages – well, several of those, actually – people have been signing up throughout the day.
If Republicans are truly interested in reforming Obamacare, then there are other ways to do it, their approach does not appear to be a good faith effort at reforming the health care law.
"Ten times this year, (Obama) has delayed one portion of Obamacare," said McCarthy. "He has acknowledged it has problems."
For more of our interview with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, watch the video above.
national lead
Why was the World War II Memorial barricaded?
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill do not seem any closer to an agreement that would end the government shutdown.
On Tuesday, when veterans came to the World War II Memorial only to discover it had been barricaded because of the shutdown, they moved the blockade, then continued on to pay their respects.
But the memorial is a federal site in a public space. According to the National World War II Memorial website, "The memorial is operated by the National Park Service and is open to visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Why was there a need for barricades in the first place?
"Park Service did not want to barricade these, but unfortunately we have been directed, because of the lack of appropriations, to close all facilities and grounds," said National Mall and Memorial parks spokeswoman Carol Johnson.
"I know that this is an open-air memorial, but we have people on staff who are CPR trained, (and) we want to make sure that we have maintenance crew to take care of any problems. What we're trying to do is protect this resource for future generations," said Johnson.
CNN's Erin McPike reports.
politics lead
Roundtable: Boehner needs a concession on Obamacare to keep his job
Will President Barack Obama or Speaker of the House John Boehner shoulder the political blame for the government shutdown?
Washington correspondent for The New Yorker Ryan Lizza said Boehner has to bring Republicans some concession – the medical device tax, or a shorter delay of the individual mandate, for example – if he wants to preserve his job.
In other words, Boehner cannot put forward a bill that funds the government, without some sort of Obamacare concession attached.
"The consensus seems to be that if he puts a clean continuing resolution on the floor, and gets no concessions whatsoever after shutting down the government, that he will lose his job as Speaker," said Lizza. "That's the bind he's in right now."
FULL POST
national lead
Rough roll out for Obamacare website
Shutdown or no shutdown, the first phase of the president's health care law, so-called Obamacare, just went live.
While users cannot get actual coverage until 2014, Tuesday marked the first day Americans could go online to sign up.
Or at least try to sign up, because there's been more than a few kinks reported in the roll out of the newly-minted Obamacare website healthcare.gov, and several of the state pages it links to.
Several users trying to log on to the new site Tuesday morning encountered an error message: "Health Insurance Marketplace: Please Wait." An ironic request, considering House Republicans are demanding a delay of the plan.
CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, live from South Carolina, a state where about a fifth of the population is uninsured.
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