In an opinion article in the New York Times titled,Do Republicans Believe in Their Own Crisis? By DAVID FIRESTONE October 7, 2013, the author talks about how he thinks the Republicans are not taking the possibility of a default seriously with an underlying blame of the default on the Republicans. He also states that in fact they are downgrading the effects of a possible default.
    Mr. Firestone ways heavy on the idea that the prospect of a default is all blamed on the Republicans. I can neither disagree or agree fully only because I have not researched this topic fully,but Mr. Firestone certainly shoots to reemphasize this idea. He says that they are trying to use the government shutdown as well as the debt ceiling as leverage to get their way on policies. That the Republicans are pretty much asking for the Democrats to give up all the liberal ideals so that they can have their way. It's very clear that Mr. Firestone is taking one sided view on this topic. It's very possible that the Democrats are making some requests or demands, but none are mentioned throughout the entire article.
   A good portion of the article is devoted to showing how the Republicans are completely downgrading the default, acting like it's not that big of a deal. Mr. Firestone uses many statements from representatives. Some of the representatives are saying it won't be that bad, others are simply denying that it will even happen, and some are saying that it will even be beneficial. I think the author does a very good job at swaying the public opinion that the Republicans are just being absolutely absurd by adding these statements. It really drives the point home for readers that they are not taking the gravity of their decisions very seriously.   
    The author goes on to claim that the Republicans are trying to keep the public blind to the real threat a default would have on society. In the last two paragraphs he really tries to make the Republicans out to be the bad guys. He presents it like they are evil manipulators; their task is to keep the public ignorant while trying to bully the Democrats into giving them what they want.
    Mr. Firestone does a very good job overall of convincing readers, not only that the Republican are some evil group, but that they are also incompetent and don't care what happens to the general public.