Heard Alan Dershowitz this morning taking about this issue. He said, Congress is like children playing with matches WRT the budget funding and shutting down the government. He said, enough. Take it away from the children. Make a Constitutional amendment to take away their power to be petulant azzholes and shut down the government. His position was that if the Congress can't agree on a budget by a date certain, then the budget automatically carries forward at the previous year's levels. (Of course a percentage increase could be included.) That way the government gets funded, and no shutdown can occur. Then, if and when they want to get serious, they could make amendments to the budget.
He's about the most level-headed Democrat I've heard since Daniel Patrick Moynihan.