john boehner's dilemma. he was around for the 1995 shutdown, and he knows personally how much it hurt the new republican majority in the house. but he's got a new caucus. 87 new members. 34 of whom have never even held elected office before. tea party, no tea party, they're just new and they came to congress promising to do business differently. promising to start cutting the budget, cutting the deficit. and this is kind of the first big vote they have. lots of republicans i talked to say you want to make your point, make it on lifting -- raising the debt ceiling or make it in this next big budget round be congressman ryan's budget, take your stand there. but these new members are saying you know what? this is what we promised to do and we're going to do it. if it means shutting down the government, they don't have any memory of what it was like the last time for republicans. >> dana, what would it mean for a shutdown of the government? you hear that the first couple
for republicans. it was very bad. democrats, though, they are worried about it, because they are not sure that things aren't different now and perhaps they could get the blame, as well. >> let's show what president obama said about 15 minutes or so ago. let's watch. >> i remain confident that if we're serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown. but it's going to require a sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved. it means that people have to recognize that a government shutdown has real consequences. >> we did have a productive conversation this evening. we do have some differences, but i do think we've made some progress. but i want to reiterate there's no agreement on a number and there's no agreement on the
say when you look at all the polling, republicans are less concerned about a shutdown than democrats are. democrats want a compromise. republican voters say it wouldn't be so bad if we made our point and shut the government down. >> some tea party rallies, you had some folks on the ground saying "shut it down." >> they were outside the capitol just today with signs saying shut it down and some republican members of congress egging them on. but everybody who has spoken is right, there seems to be less of a desire, even among the most ardent supporters of doing whatever you need to do to stick to principle, to shut the government down. just to gloria's point, i was told that john boehner, the house speaker in a meeting with republicans, stood up earlier this week and said, i had a front row seat to the shutdown last time, you don't want that to happen, making it clear he means both in terms of what it means for the country, for the economy, and maybe politically
gloria borger, and correspondent dana bash is with us, as well. david, what do you make of the president's statement, saying it would be inexcusable if they were not able to come up with a deal and avoid a shutdown. >> well, we didn't get the breakthrough we were hoping for, anderson, that's clear. and i continue to think we're likely to get it here in the next day or two, they're very close. what's so unusual about this, the president is keeping some heat on through the bully pulpit, but ordinarily in these kinds of negotiations, the white house is in the room helping to drive the negotiations. and in this case, as he did in the health care bill, the president is leaving a lot more responsibility to leaders of congress to cut the deal than he is coming in with, here's our view, let's drive it, let's keep going. >> he's done that, david, and gloria, he's done that pretty much his entire time in office. and on many issues, leaving it up to congress. it is a very different style of leadership. we may be getting john boehner
warped here. what i was trying to say is the image of those two men together really speaks volumes, it really does. the fact that they both came out and said that they're working together instead of what we saw, you know, all day today, which is each of them launching public grenades across the capital rotunda at one another. >> david, this goes on, this crisis is averted, say the shutdown doesn't occur. but there are real philosophical differences and you also have differences within the republican party. you have the this new blood in the republican party, tea party groups, who have come, who are talking about cutting deficits, getting more fiscal responsibility. so where does this battle go, even if the shutdown doesn't occur? >> well, anderson, i do think dana was right about one thing
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and that the two of them coming out together. the most reassuring signal we've had that an agreement will be reached before the shutdown deadline and things will go on. having said that, the big battles obviously are still ahead. we're talking about a tiny piece of the budget that's at stake here. the big battle is going to be over next year, the 2012 budget. with paul ryan throwing down the gauntlet this week, saying we want to go big, we want to go deep. that's going to -- there's an enormous rift between what the republicans are putting down there and what the democrats believe. you know, it's good news. i think what we just saw tonight, but let's not mistake, we've got huge, huge challenges to overcome. even the paul ryan budget, as big as it is, as controversial as it is, it doesn't balance the budget until 2040. so we're talking about huge sums commony compared to the trivial
sufficient sense of urgency from all parties involved. it means that people have to recognize that a government shutdown has real consequences for real people. there was an interview that was done tonight on one of the nightly news networks. a man from kentucky named j.t. henderson, he said he's counting on his tax rebate because his family has been scraping by and he might not get it if the government shuts down. so j.t. said, if you can speak directly to all of us in washington, he would tell us that all of this political grandstanding has effects, as it trickles down to normal, everyday americans. i could not have said it better myself. a shutdown could have real effects on everyday americans. it means that small business owners who are counting on that loan to open their business, to make payroll, to expand,
states has just said the least we can do is pass a budget, and we went to pennsylvania apparently to work on his campaign budget. >> the tea party just continues to pull senator -- speaker boehner further back and back and back. they say they don't want compromise. they say they relish a shutdown. >> the fact is, both republicans and democrats share plenty to blame here. let's start with the democrats. president obama first proposed a budget for the 2011 fiscal year february 1st, 2010. that's more than a year ago. five months after that, the house passed a few bills but didn't get through the senate. that's the big question, why? at the time, democrats controlled the house and the senate, and this could have been settled before they lost that chance. now here we are, six short term spending measures later, still no agreement. president obama has been mostly mia on this issue until recently. he met with boehner and others yesterday that yielded some grownup lecturing after he was asked what the american people
white house. he has been meeting for about an hour or so with john boehner. congressman boehner as well as senator harry reid. and here comes the president right now, as well as vice president biden. let's listen in. >> good evening, everybody. i'm just going to have a few quick remarks. we just had a productive meeting with speaker boehner, as well as majority leader reid. we discussed the impasse that we're firmly at with respect to the budget. and i thought the meetings were frank. they were constructive and what they did was narrow the issues and clarify the issues that are still outstanding. i remain confident that if we're serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown. but it's going to require a