Listening to Obama today and seeing signs that Democrats aren’t interested in negotiating, I don’t even think they care if the shutdown goes for two weeks or longer.
Their playbook looks like this: In 1996, the public blamed Republicans. They believe they’ll blame them again this time.
If they continue to take a hardline and the shutdown continues, there is also the chance the Republican party fractures further. If they’re right about the public blaming Republicans they have a chance to re-take the House. If they’re wrong, they don’t have the House anyway. They could lose the Senate but they won’t lose the White House until the next election. Even then, they probably like Hilary’s chances against whoever the Republicans back.
One thing is clear. No one, absolutely NO ONE in Congress cares about the US economy. Is that the kind of currency you want to buy? Even Berlusconi’s footsoldiers backed off when they saw the damage they could do the the Italian recovery.
