Congress on Wednesday enters the eighth day of the federal shutdown with neither party giving an inch and the path to a resolution nowhere in sight.

But something will have to give if lawmakers hope to reopen the government in any timely fashion, and that movement will likely be the result of external forces exerting pressure on one party — or both of them — to break the deadlock.

That's been the case in the protracted shutdowns of years past, when a number of outside factors — from economic sirens to public frustration — have combined to compel lawmakers to cede ground and carry their policy battles to another day.

Here are five pressure points that might help to break the current impasse.

Public Sentiment

Among the most recycled quotes on Capitol Hill is attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Public sentiment is everything.” The trouble, in these early stages of the shutdown fight, is that the verdict is still out on where that sentiment will land.

That uncertainty has led both parties to dig in while they await more concrete evidence of which side is bearing the brunt of the blame. But those polls are coming, and if history is any indication, they will be a potent factor in forcing at least one side to shift positions for the sake of ending the shutdown.

That was the case in 2013, when Republicans demanding a repeal of ObamaCare saw their approval ratings plummet — and dropped their campaign after 16 days without winning any concessions. A similar dynamic governed the shutdown of 2018 and 2019 — the longest in history — when Republicans agreed to reopen the government without securing the border wall money they’d insisted upon.

A recent CBS poll found that 39 percent of voters blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown; 30 percent blame congressional Democrats; and 31 percent blame both parties equally.

A Harvard/Harris poll also showed that more respondents blame Republicans (53 to 47 percent), but nearly two-thirds believe Democrats should accept the GOP’s stopgap funding bill without a fix for the expiring Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.

The ambiguity of those sentiments has heightened the partisan blame game — and has given both sides an incentive to hold the line until a clearer picture emerges.

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