It's the third day of the government shutdown, and Congress appears no closer to a resolution. President Obama and Senate Democrats continue to call for a clean government funding bill, and Tea Party Republicans are still holding our nation hostage with a long list of demands. All the while, Republican leaders claim that the shutdown is the democrats' fault for being unwilling to negotiate. But, their claims are completely bogus.

The so-called compromise that Republicans offer is about nothing more than undercutting Obamacare, even after the law has started to go into effect. And, the conference committee that Republicans say that they want is exactly what Democrats have asked for 18 times, in an effort to prevent our nation from reaching the economic brink where we now stand. Speaker John Boehner won't even bring a clean continuing resolution to the floor of the House, because he knows that democrats and moderate Republicans would vote to pass it. That is not compromise. That is not negotiation.

The fact is, the Senate's version of the bill already included huge concessions to Republicans, like continuing the sequester, and proposed spending levels below the amount that the Tea Party has previously demanded. The Senate Democrats already compromised in an effort to keep our government running, and House Republicans demanded more.

Now, the Tea Party's hostage-taking has led to the furlough of 800,000 workers, the closure of our national parks, and thousands of women and children wondering if they'll be able to afford their next meal. Americans deal with give-and-take everyday in their daily lives, and they aren't foolish enough to believe that this Republican list of demands is anything close to a compromise.