Destroying the Village in Order to Save It

So if I can paraphrase the logic of the Government Shutdown, Congress's argument goes something like this:

"The debt is getting out of hand due to out-of-control spending by Congress (i.e. "Us"). The long-term consequence of this irresponsibility will be that the Government will run out of money and fail (i.e. "Close").
In order to prevent this catastrophe, we, Congress, are shutting the government down now in order to save the country from the pain, suffering and misery of living without a government."

So, in other words, only by stopping those that would shut down the government can we stop the people who have shut down the government. But considering that this whole brouhaha is generated by the people whose job it is to prevent all this from happening in the first place, why are they the only ones not suffering the consequences of this?

If we turn to the first tool of figuring out government (Follow the Money), our real question should be, "Who's benefiting most from the government shutdown?" Obviously Congress itself is high on the list, but who else?