There was a time not so long ago when Democrats and Republicans could get over the most intractable disagreements, "The culture of congress was quite different in the 1980's ... the idea that you opposed what the other party was for but you didn't throw up insurmountable road blocks..." Even Ronald Reagan, the modern Republican party's poster boy was happy to work cross party, "Reagan had democrats in the white house all the time", but those days are now long gone. Republican politicians are now "almost all signing up to a pledge never to increase taxes." A position that has directly led to this showdown over Obamacare and the debt ceiling. Through revealing interviews this report explores how the Republican Party's hatred of Obamacare, increasing conservatism and the emergence of the Tea Party movement have contributed to the most partisan and least productive period in US political history.