I don't think they're holding the American people hostage, I think that's you guys being speculative starfishs on the situation. They were unable to shut down the law in the first place, so they're trying to stop it by killing funding. That doesn't mean their intent is to keep the government shut down, that's just a byproduct of them refusing to send up a bill with funding for Obamacare. Honestly, I feel like it'd be the democrats keeping the American people hostage. The Republicans are at least sending budgets over, they're just saying "no."