Republicans are pretty annoyed with each other over the Obamacare funding deadline.

Many Republicans want to defund Obamacare by passing a continuing resolution that funds everything budgeted for the government except Obamacare. The problem is that while this will pass the House, it will not pass the Senate. Without the Senate passing it, the government shuts down. Obama jumps up and down and points at how stupid the Republicans are, and how much they want to hurt the country.

Indeed. Defund Obamacare or don’t? What difference, at this point, does it make? Plenty for the country; not much for the Republicans’ PR.

Alternatively, the Senate can strip all the defunding language from the bill and even increase the damage Obamacare will do. This then goes back to the House, who will of course reject it. This means the government shuts down anyway. Again, Obama jumps up and down and points at how stupid the Republicans are, and how much they want to hurt the country. Given that this results in the same outcome, Speaker Boehner is carefully parsing his words, but presently supports this plan. Maybe, just maybe, the Senate will pass it and avert a shutdown as well as defund Obamacare when Democrats realize how damaging a shutdown will be.

Other Republicans take a different approach. They advocate that the better strategy is leave the funding in, but use the debt ceiling limit argument to pressure Democrats into agreeing to delay Obamacare for a year. This way, the government doesn’t shut down, and we simply delay the rest of Obamacare.

But the first group says that Democrats won’t accept the deal, and the government goes into a debt crisis. This will have immediate and severe repercussions on the American economy lasting until at least 2014, and Obama jumps up and down and points at how stupid the Republicans are, and how much they want to hurt the country. Further, every Republican in Congress was elected or re-elected on the promise to stop Obamacare no matter what—failing to defund the messy law is tantamount to helping implement it.

In a seemingly unrelated story, President Obama interrupted his own expression of concern for the victims of Monday’s terrible mass shooting at the Navy Yard to point hout how stupid Republicans are, and how much they want to hurt the country. As even MSNBC noted with some disgust, the President spent more time abusing the Republicans than he did talking about the shooting victims. This is important to understand when reviewing the two strategies.

Okay, let us be clear. No matter what the Republicans do, the President—and by extension the news media—will deny any responsibility and blame the Republicans for destroying the country because, when you look at it, that’s all he ever does. Whether they defund Obamacare and shut the government down, whether they gamble on Democratic cooperation and instead put the US into a serious debt default, or whether they solve all the nation’s problems and save the day, the President is going to blame them for everything in the world.

It’s like ringing the doorbell and expecting the dog not to bark wildly. This is Obama. It is what he does. It is all he does.

Know this: no matter what the Republicans do, the President will make sure it is reported as a disaster and that blame rests solely on the Republicans. You will not be seen as heroes by the news networks.

Know this also: Democrats do not negotiate when it matters. Both plans assume victory if the Democrats will do the honorable thing and negotiate in good faith to help the country.

Not gonna happen. Just like when Reagan agreed to raise taxes if the Democrats cut spending, just like when Bush raised taxes in return for support on the Gulf War, and just like when the other Bush issued stimuli as part of a deal to go easier on him, the Democrats ignored the deal after the fact.

Republicans, who evidently were oblivious to reality even a few years ago, seem to think if they offer to raise the debt ceiling if Obamacare is delayed, the Democrats will agree that this is a fair and sensible plan.

Here is what the Democrats are hearing: if you refuse to negotiate with the Republicans, the nation is hurt economically and the Democrats can readily win back the House in 2014.

The Czar thinks that this is a Catch 22. And because of it, the Republicans will be blamed no matter what for ruining the country. Because of that, and because the economic impact will be severe and bad either way, the Republicans should do what they promised to do: stop Obamacare at any cost. Reluctantly, because it is a bad idea as well, the Czar has decided to go with the defunding strategy.

And brace for impact.

No matter what approach: we either crash hard or we crash fast. The Czar opts for fast.