Sources: Senate Dems think about spending cuts
>>well, it’s all serious, but i think this is more of a preliminary round. the huge one’s going to be raising the debt ceiling. but we are not going to have a government shutdown. if there is one, maybe two hours. it’s not the one that any citizen would even notice. i do not think we are even going to have one. but the government has contingency plans. it’s not like the air traffic controllers would leave the building and there would be a cease-fire in afghanistan. most americans would not ever even know it if there was two or a six or a one-day shutdown, but i doubt we get there. the huge fight is going to be the debt ceiling. that is going to be the one that really, really, really matters and where it’s going to be, i think the political equivalent of brain surgery, trying to negotiate cuts that are enough for republicans to take home to support a debt increase, but not so much that democrats just cannot go along with it at all.
>>and in speaking to some republicans, i think the difference this time is that john boehner doesn’t really control his own caucus. whatever you think of the job that he is trying to do, these preliminary run-up votes show that you have got new members in the republican caucus who aren’t the same as the old-style members of congress. they do not seem to care if they aren’t re-elected. and that doesn’t give the speaker a whole lot of leverage to try to whip them into shape.
>>i think it’s true that speaker boehner does not control all members of his caucus, or particularly the freshman, but at the same time, he is trying to govern in a different way. when you are doing open rules and exposing yourself and not just sort of running –
>>which means he is permitting amendments on the floor, this is not the sort of top-down control that nancy pelosi and her republican predecessors –
>>yeah, this is –
>>this is not tom delay.
>>exactly. this is the way the institution is supposed to work. and democracy is messy. and it’s going to expose boehner to some losses here or there. the thing is, whether you are speaking about speaker boehner or harry reid or the president or all these people, you know, these are all adults. and they all know the consequences of a real government shutdown, and of not raising the debt ceiling. and i think at the end of the day, it will be something that nobody’s happy, but everybody can live with.
>>the “national journal” had a poll, you have a poll here which shows how the public reacts, would react to a government shut down and shows an absolute, you know, flip here where democrats think that the shut down is in their party interest. 56% and 56% of republicans think it’s not.
>>well of the insiders, yeah. nobody knows how this thing’s going to go. the thing is, who does a better job of framing it? and voters aren’t sure — i mean, you will have 80, 85% of democratic voters thinking one thing and 80, 85% of republican voters saying — and independents, they are sort of watching and they are not sure. so this hasn’t played out yet.
>>the bottom line is that we know there is plenty of speak going on behind the scenes, house and senate. you have got most likely people from the white house, from the treasury, the treasury secretary himself up there speaking to people. they are going to try to work something out, because as you say, the grown-ups know that with the global markets and everything else that is going on and oil prices zooming, the cost of what is happening in libya and the rest of the middle east, this recovery is fragile.
>>yeah. the adults know the consequences. ? going to — and they’
>>but are they in charge?
>>well, i think they will eventually prevail. but this is going to be messy. it’s going to be a roller coaster. it’s not going to be fun to watch or pleasant to watch. but you know, at the end of the day, it’s going to work out.
>>okay, charlie cook, take it from there. and of course, you are on video tape now saying
source : www.msnbc.msn.com
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Submited at Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 7:00 pm on Politics by jessica
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