by Calculated Risk on 4/08/2011 07:06:00 PM

A few comments ... (midnight ET)

• I still expect an agreement.

• Stan Collender writes: The Shutdown Problem This September is Going to be Even Worse

No matter what happens today with the government shutdown, the situation is going to be even more difficult this September when the House, Senate, and White House fight over the 2012 appropriations. ... Expect another shutdown threat...or an actual shutdown...in less than 6 months.

• And from the NY Times Caucus: Conservatives Urge Boehner to Cut a Budget Deal and Move On

[J]ust hours before the first government shutdown in 15 years –some of the most vocal conservatives are urging Republicans to reach a deal before a shutdown occurs.
...
Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and a possible presidential candidate, said Friday afternoon in an interview that a shutdown would “hurt the Republicans, not the Democrats.”
...
Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, one of the more conservative Republicans in the Senate, told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt that Republicans should “probably” give up on the policy “riders” that have been holding up negotiations.

This is probably the cover Boehner needs. But as Collender notes, it will get really ugly in September.