For business leaders, the Boeing chief said, the impasse between the White House and the Republican-run House over a budget to end the shutdown "drives an even deeper concern about the debt limit".
But in an e-mail, a spokeswoman, Joanne Cachapero, did mention another reason to be skeptical that the pornography shutdown drove the large decline in film payrolls: performers in X-rated films, who number about 3,000, are independent contractors, which means they wouldn't be counted in the Labor Department's payroll data anyway.
W. James McNerney Jr., chief executive of Boeing, and also the chairman of the Business Roundtable, a corporate association, and of the White House export council, said in an interview on Thursday that for corporate America, the standoff over the government shutdown "drives an even deeper concern about the debt limit".
The confrontation sets the stage for more bruising partisan battles just weeks after a 16-day government shutdown drove public approval numbers for Congress to record lows.
Industrial output rose more than expected in December, although oil field shutdowns drove the biggest quarterly fall since early 2009.
Given this coalitional breadth, it is hard to contend that the shutdown was driven by extremists on the margins, particularly given the support, both active and passive of many Republican House members who do not hail from tea party districts.
In the end, however, it was Cuccinelli's conservative views on abortion together with anger at the Republican-driven government shutdown that drove voters to McAuliffe, a man once seen as the embodiment of Washington machine politics and with a history of chequered business relationships.
US Airways cut fares today to begin filling its planes with passengers after the shutdown threat drove away customers.
Police and soldiers maintained a low profile as the "shutdown Bangkok" drive got under way in Thailand's capital.
