i think that s why putin has gone to such great lengths to try and save with somebody else other than the assad government. to the other point, what does it say about the president s leadership, look, i don t think this helped the president at all. i think the policy was flaud. i think honestly over the course of 10 or 12 days he looked weak, he looked indecisive and hesitant. i don t think projecting that type of image on the global stable is good for the president and i don t think it s good for the country either. i don t relish the fact it happened. there s no way you can look at this incident and think the president emerged stronger in the eyes of the world. i must on the note of weak and indecisive leadership, i do want to get to domestic concerns. there s a lot of talk about weak and indecisive republican leaders may have been and question whether the government is going to actually shut down in less than a month. congressman, you and i talked about feelings over holding the b
defaulting on the national debt. that would be their threat. they would cut off if they could. and therefore of course default. what do you think of this? bad to worse, chris. i don t know. if you thought that holding the debt ceiling hostage was a bad idea, if you thought a continuing resolution holding that hostage was a bad idea, you ll hate this one. republican elders said we cannot hold the country hostage, we can t hold the budget hostage on defunding obama care. it s never going to work. the debt ceiling is an even worse idea. as the national review reported, house leadership is engaged in political wink wink kabuki theater where they have to entertain every single harebrained idea that the right flank has to placate them. the question is, at the end of the day, can they bring them back from the brink. i think over the bush tax cuts
we ve got a number of news sources. one is the national review, a conservative organization. not a right wing one. and the washington examiner a bit to the right of that with news stories saying people on the republican right are planning to step back from a government shutdown but to proceed to an escalation, defaulting on the national debt. that would be their threat. they would cut off if they could. and therefore of course default. what do you think of this? bad to worse, chris. i don t know. if you thought that holding the debt ceiling hostage was a bad idea, if you thought a continuing resolution holding that hostage was a bad idea, you ll hate this one. republican elders said we cannot hold the country hostage, we can t hold the budget hostage on
will democrats pay a serious political cost for that in the midterm elections upcoming? it s still unclear. be currently, yes, they would be. but the other thing that s showing up in the polls, in fact, american crossroads just ran a poll that showed that 64% of the american people do not want the budget to be held up gregg: right. so republicans have to be careful not to hold the budget hostage. they don t want to hold the budget hostage which is what they re getting i mean, a lot of people in these town hall meetings are saying hold the budget hostage, because that s where the stronger ire is. there s going to be a play here in november of 2014 clearly. but right now i d say, yeah, a problem on both sides. gregg: here s why people are getting so upset, and we ll put it up on the screen. here is a policy cancellation set by aetna. i spoke to the gentleman who received it. it makes clear that it s because
the budget hostage, then i wonder about 2014. are we sort of back to where newt gingrich and the republicans were before? gregg: the other promise in addition to you can keep your coverage and, again, policy cancellation 60,000 so far, is that, you know, this is going to hold down costs and, n., your premiums are going to go down. maybe in new york and california, aberrations, but the officials in florida, up 35%. ohio premiums will go up 41%, indiana, 72%. i ve got a long list here all the way to nevada, 101% increase. again, sort of another broken promise that your premiums are going to go down. again, it s called obamacare. the republicans did a very good job of sticking that name on it, and obama embraced it. and so if these i m with you. if these increases go up like this, everybody s going to know in 2014, then the democrats really do pay a price. gregg: and republicans could win the senate. potentially, yes. again, unless there s a budget