Barring a last-minute deal — and such deals aren't that uncommon — the spending law funding the U.S. government will lapse at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday and the federal government, in the common nomenclature, will shut down.

Only it won't, entirely.

Over the last 50 years, there have been nearly two dozen shutdowns , with the most recent and longest (at 35 days) coming in late 2018-early 2019 (though that was a "partial" shutdown because Congress had already enacted a handful of spending laws.) Throw in the fact that Congress hasn't followed through on its own rules for passing all the required individual spending bills by the Oct. 1 beginning of the federal fiscal year since 1997; has instead relied on catch-all appropriations measures (usually hurriedly put together) or continuing resol

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