Path to shutdown resolution elusive as parties dig into opposing positions

ATLANTA — The government shutdown has now dragged into its eighteenth day—and it looks likely to last even longer.

In public comments and interviews throughout the week, Georgia Democrats and Republicans offered starkly different visions for how to reach a deal to reopen the government and blamed each other for the gridlock.

"My Republican colleagues are saying the healthcare discussion can wait," said Senator Raphael Warnock in a social media video Thursday. "It cannot wait."

The Georgia Democrat laid out the position of many in his party who say any funding bill to reopen the government must include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.

But most congressional Republicans have a very different view.

"Stop playing games," said Representative Mike Collins, Monday in a video po