Government shut down, short term thinking and 8 trillion is additional debt

The government shutdown is not the result of a single policy.
It is the result of policies which do not include short term, medium term and long term analysis.
A short term thinking, knee jerk war led to an acceleration of the government debt burden from 6 trillion to 14 trillion with the associated untenable debt service.
Many assume that the country is headed for disaster, and they are correct.  There are some fairly simple solutions that are still available however.  The first of these has to be started at the state level; the implementation of term limits on Congress and the removal of the perogatives that give them too much power and take away their incentive to govern based on patriotism and not just to ensure they stay in office by pandering to supporters, financial and special interest groups.
In other words, the first thing we need to do is have a peaceful overhaul (not exactly an overthrow) of our own government using the state system to begin.  The second thing is to change the way that we conduction politics and war by requring the application of different terms of intelligence to our decisions.

Or, you can learn Chinese and hope for the best.