We understand that some in the tea party and certain cable TV hosts want a government shutdown for their own reasons. But these are the same cable pundits who insist that even though $61 billion in cuts are trivial, Republicans should still shut down the government to get them. Self-contradiction is not a sound political strategy.

Republicans also say that if they back down now they’ll have no credibility for the bigger fights to come over the debt limit and Congressman Paul Ryan’s 2012 limit. We think the opposite is more likely. Republicans will have more credibility over fights that really matter if they show they’re willing to compromise now. And if Republicans back down next week after a shutdown begins, as they did in 1995, they will look even worse to their own supporters and have squandered even more political capital for very little return.

We’re not opposed to a shutdown showdown, but the policy stakes ought to be worth the political investment. The reforms in Mr. Ryan’s just-released 2012 budget are worth such a fight, as are serious and enforceable spending restrictions in return for a debt limit increase. Republicans need to prepare voters for these major policy choices. A government shutdown over $10 billion or so in a $3.5 trillion budget will be hard for voters to understand.