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Every government shutdown is a game of a chicken between Democrats and Republicans, or sometimes between Congress and the White House. And every administration tries to use its power to squeeze opponents, moving around money to keep some programs running and closing others. After Republicans shut down the government in 2013, for example, the Barack Obama White House closed National Park Service sites. Although it sounds quaint today, this caused a huge stir at the time, and Republicans in Congress called it a brazen political ploy. But the ploy worked: Many voters blamed the congressional GOP f

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