officials are still tallying how much they ve spent but they are confident they ve already blown the budget. in washington, the usual budget talk is largely muted today. the government has shut its federal offices. cnn s erin mcpike is standing oh, that s so beautiful, erin. well, carol, washington, d.c., is really, for the most part, shut down. even the white house briefing has been canceled for today. but the federal government is completely closed. and you can see here that the capitol is behind me because the federal government is closed it means all of the hearings that were supposed to go on in the capitol today also are off. and that means all of these people who have come to washington for business throughout the week are stuck here because also the dulles airport is shut down. washington reagan airport is shut down. all the runways are closed there. baltimore-washington international airport, the runways are open but most of the flights have been canceled. i want to show
sides would agree it s been a mess, it s been a disaster. but what that means for the democrats and for president obama in their view is that they sort of have nowhere to go but with up, that they ve bottomed out at the start, and politically they can spend the next year trying to say it s getting better and better all the time. republicans, obviously, think that s not going to work, and can they seem quite determined to make obamacare s failings the centerpiece of their campaign in 2014. it s one of the reasons, i think, why this budget deal that the house passed with a solid number of republican votes last night two out of three every republican votes is going to cruise through the senate relatively quickly next week because the republicans want to get budget talk behind them, and they want to make talking about obamacare job one for the campaign. jon: so they re trying to keep their powder dry, in essence, get this budget deal behind them even though some of the most conservativ
how much did he cut then? so secretary gates did about between 250 and 300 billion. then we had a $400 billion cut. almost $500 billion cut with the budget talk. another is 500 billion from sequestration. how has the military been affected? because of how fast we ve had to do it, really has affected our readiness. so we have what i m concerned about is we re able to meet our missions in afghanistan, but it will be at some unknown contingency, i m concerned we wouldn t have our soldiers trained to do what they need to. that s been the problem. that s been what s most concerning to me. this deal will help a little bit in the near term. but it still doesn t address the broader problem with sequestration. it stretched two years. that s a start. we appreciate that very much. work that s being done. but we now have to be concerned about the sequestration is a nine-year problem. so it s another seven years that we still have to be concerned. you guys are commissioned by nature to ta
some questions for you. and he said he would be interested to know what is the number one worry that you have about investing in american equities right now given you have so many stakes in so many companies from apple to twitter to others. the big worry is not the economy or the business or the companies. the worries is that the political fight in washington impacts the stock market and the sentiment in the united states. we saw how the budget talk and the deficit talk almost ruined the investment in the united states. it s not the economy. the american economy will survive. the worry is that the political fight and bickering between both parties will have impact on the economy and the investor sentiment. do you still feel confident
about investing in american equities right now given you have so many stakes in so many companies from apple to twitter to others. the big worry is not the economy or the business or the companies. the worries is that the political fight in washington impacts the stock market and the sentiment in the united states. we saw how the budget talk and the deficit talk almost ruined the investment in the united states. it s not the economy. the american economy will survive. the worry is that the political fight and bickering between both parties will have impact on the economy and the investor sentiment. do you still feel confident in the way the american economy is going or do you share concerns that many people have that it could potentially if they are not careful rebound back in a recession?