US government showdown: key players – in pictures

House speaker John Boehner, involved in a long-simmering dispute with tea party conservatives, managed to unite House Republicans on Saturday night when they voted almost in unity to send a bill to the Senate that would delay the Affordable Care Act for a year as a condition to fund the government through December 15. The Senate is likely going to reject that provision on Monday Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican representative from Washington state, appeared on CNN's State of the Nation on Sunday morning, where she accused the Senate of delaying its vote. 'Senate Democrats are so determined to make their point that they believe House Republicans are playing games,' she said Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

'Listen, I’m not going to let the government shut down,' Republican House member Peter King told the New York Times on Friday. 'I don’t want to be undercutting Boehner, but put it this way: I will not let the government shut down.' King voted in favour of Saturday night's bill to delay Obamacare one year Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Steve King, a Republican representative from Iowa who voted for the House resolution on Saturday night, placed the blame for a shutdown squarely on Obama's shoulders, calling it 'the equivalent of a political tantrum'. He told the Huffington Post on Friday that 'if Obamacare is ever implemented, we will never recover from that as a nation'
Photograph: Michael Reynolds

'We will not shut the government down,' said the number three House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy of California on Sunday. 'If we have to negotiate a little longer, we will continue to negotiate,' he added without elaboration. McCarthy suggested the House would 'get back together in enough time, send another provision not to shut the government down, but to fund it, and it will have a few other options in there for the Senate to look at again'
Photograph: Michael Reynolds

House speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders initially preferred waging the fight over health care on a separate bill for raising the government's debt limit, thus avoiding threatening a shutdown. A small group of younger Republicans whipped up sentiment among fellow conservatives for using the shutdown measure for an all-out assault on the Affordable Care Act Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is all smiles as walks to a meeting of House Republicans before the Saturday night votes. 'We do not presuppose what the Senate will do; the ball is in their court,' he said after voting to send to Senate the bill that delays Obamacare Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Republican Senator Ted Cruz appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday where he, too, blamed Harry Reid for any eventual shutdown. 'The American people overwhelmingly reject Obamacare,' he said. 'They understand it's not working. The only people who aren't listening to the argument are the career politicians in Washington. It's Harry Reid who wants to use brute political force' Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

Senate leader Harry Reid showed no interest in negotiating with Republicans over the stalemate. On Saturday, he said he would refuse to bow to 'Tea Party anarchists' Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Asked on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday if he thought a shutdown was now inevitable, Dick Durbin, the second most senior Democrat in the Senate, replied: 'I'm afraid I do' Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images