U.S. Government Shutdown Enters Third Day
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Let's just recap our top story. The U.S. government shutdown is now on day three. Lawmakers have not been able to agree on a deal but the Senate is set to vote on Monday at noon to reopen the government.</s>HOWELL: In the meantime, thousands of non-essential federal employees will be furloughed. Our Pentagon correspondent Ryan Browne reports the U.S. military may also be affected.</s>RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: As the government shutdown continues, both sides have pointed to its effect on the military as a reason that it needs to come to an end. Now the military will be impacted in a variety of ways. U.S. troops, U.S. uniformed personnel, will continue to perform their duties both here at home and overseas. But if the shutdown continues to the next pay period, those troops, including those in combat, will not be paid. Death benefits to be paid potentially to fallen service members' families could potentially be affected as well by a shutdown. About 50 percent to 75 percent of the Department of Defense's civilian workforce will be furloughed, will not come in to work. That can affect contracting, can affect other maintenance programs, something of very big concern to the Secretary of Defense, James Mattis. Reserve training will be canceled as well. All these things having an effect not necessarily on active military operations but a lot of the support services, which is why Secretary of Defense Mattis said a shutdown would have a terrible impact on the United States military and the Department of Defense but U.S. troops around the world would continue performing their jobs. Back to you.</s>CHURCH: Thanks so much. Joining us from Los Angeles, CNN political commentators, Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican consultant John Thomas. Thanks to both of you for joining us. Now on Sunday, we all watched Republicans and Democrats pointing the finger of blame at each other for this government shutdown instead of actually finding a solution toward essentially what is a very high level of dysfunction. So who's to blame for this shutdown? What do the polls tell us, Dave Jacobson?</s>DAVE JACOBSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Rosemary, Politico and Morning Consult put out a poll just hours ago, in which they asked the American people, who do they blame for the government shutdown? Forty-one percent of respondents said it was Republicans. And only 36 percent of respondents said that it was Democrats. Why do Americans believe that Republicans are to blame? Because for the first time in modern history, you have one-party rule with a government shutdown. Donald Trump, the Republican, --</s>JACOBSON: -- is in the White House. Republicans control the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. This is unprecedented. And I think it underscores a true failure of leadership from the top down when it comes to Republicans. And the American people know it.</s>CHURCH: John Thomas, do you agree? I suspect not.</s>JOHN THOMAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, of course, not. But Dave's not wrong about the polling. And I think the -- first of all, it's almost margin of error stuff. But the reason you do see American public today believing that, in fact, Republicans are slightly more responsible is because most Americans don't understand that you have to get 60 votes to pass this budget bill. And the fact is there is no path to 60 without Democrat support. So in fact it is the Democrats that are truly to blame. And I think public opinion will begin to reflect that when they start to understand that 60-vote count. Here's the most amazing thing to me, Rosemary, is that the reason -- this is a bill that no one objects to the things in the bill, yet Democrats are voting to shut down the government over DACA, a policy that doesn't expire for weeks and that both Trump and the Republicans have said they want to fix and figure out.</s>HOWELL: Well, John, to your point, this question to you as well. So two Democratic sources say they expect that Monday's key vote will fall short of that 60 votes that's necessary. That's what we're hearing from two Democratic sources. So the question, John, to you. As this drags on, if it drags on, who will be most at risk to feel the ire of voters? Will it be Democrats or Republicans?</s>THOMAS: I think everybody's a loser in this particular situation. I think some are worse off than others. I quite frankly think Democrats are backing themselves into a corner, specifically Democratic senators that are in states where Trump won. For instance, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, if she has to vote to keep this open, if she doesn't, it could jeopardize her re-elect. So I think the other thing is, Democrats are making -- saying the reason they didn't vote for this bill is simply because they want illegal immigrants to have legal status and that's contradictory to Republicans in Trump's America first message.</s>HOWELL: Dave, same question to you. Who stands the most to lose here as this continues?</s>JACOBSON: Well, I think the polling that I alluded to earlier clearly is the latest evidence that shows the Republicans are already hurting more than Democrats. And that's because Democrats are advancing the agenda of the American people. Poll after poll consistently has shown the American people want a fix to DACA. CBS put out a poll the other day: 87 percent of Americans want a DACA fix, 79 percent of those are Republicans. When it comes to CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program that was part of the House bill that had the six-year extension but not a permanent solution in extension in terms of funding, that even has more support than the DACA fix does. So clearly the Democrats are advancing an agenda that the American people overwhelmingly support. And going back to John's point in terms of passing a deal, Republicans are the party in power. Republicans have had one year of the Trump presidency to pass a comprehensive budget. But what do the Republicans do? They jam through Congress a widely unpopular tax cut for millionaires and billionaires and Wall Street banks and corporations at a time when they could have been passing a comprehensive budget. And I think that really serves as fresh evidence of what the Republican agenda is and their priorities. It's looking out for the rich and kicking the middle class and poor people to the curb.</s>CHURCH: John Thomas, to you now. I want to tackle the DACA problem because we heard from President Trump in that Tuesday bipartisan meeting, when he discussed this and he said, I will sign anything put in front of me. Then we suddenly see this backflip. This is the problem. And this is really at the core of the lack of trust on the part of the Democrats when it comes to making a decision on this. And they're using this as leverage to get what they need for the DREAMers. So do you agree that there is a problem here and the root of it appears to be President Trump and what he believes? Because Mitch McConnell himself has said he doesn't really know exactly what President Trump wants.</s>THOMAS: Yes, but this fight really is between Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell. Like the president said, he would essentially sign what makes it to his desk. And it's not that -- President Trump does want to make a deal on DACA, Rosemary, but he also wants to keep the government open. The challenge with DACA, like to Dave's point, most Americans do want to keep DACA but the devil is in the details. DACA doesn't mean amnesty for the parents as well as the kids. Does it mean they can use welfare programs? What about chain migration? It is a complicated problem that we're not getting the answer to tonight. But we want to keep the government open. And people like Dave and Chuck Schumer are literally willing to throw 8 million --</s>THOMAS: -- children under the bus that rely on programs like CHIP and our military, grieving widows, like your reporter said, they're willing to play politics with those people to get a score on DACA but they can get it a week from now.</s>CHURCH: Dave, this is the problem for the Democrats, isn't it, there is a vulnerability here because a lot of people could turn around and say, just open up the government and deal with DACA a little later, because it's not a problem for DACA right now.</s>JACOBSON: I think John's right that the devil is in the details. At the end of the day, the American people are going to look at which party controls all different arms of the government. And that's the Republicans. They're in charge. They're not going to look at all the finite nuances when it comes to these votes. And let's not forget that four Republicans actually voted with the Democrats to shut down the government: Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, Mike Lee, Rand Paul. So this isn't purely a Democratic strategy. There's a number of key, high-profile Republicans, who lined up with the Democrats because they wanted a comprehensive solution. And it's clear that Democrats want to bring some sort of common sense consensus effort forward. And that's why they were able to partner with those four Republicans to come up with some sort of a plan. It's also why Senator Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin presented a comprehensive deal to the president. It's on Republicans like Donald Trump, who shut down that deal, who are ultimately causing the shutdown.</s>HOWELL: Well, you know -- the one thing that is certain, here's where we are. The incendiary rhetoric, it seems to have been toned down a bit. There are thousands of people who are uncertain about what happens next. Do they get a paycheck? Do they go to work? That's where we are right now. And we'll have to see if these sides could come together to reach some sort of a deal. Dave Jacobson, John Thomas, thank you so much for your time.</s>JACOBSON: Thank you.</s>CHURCH: Thank you</s>HOWELL: Well, the U.S. government, again, shut down. And now we move into the work week after the Senate failed to reach an agreement over the weekend. What happens next? We look into it as CNN NEWSROOM continues.