journal. stephen, congress has gone to the wire in many cases and averted a shutdown. what does a deal look like to keep the lights on in washington beyond friday? in most cases, the doomsday scenario is averted. but you remember 1995, and 1996, when we did have a government shutdown and that was that famous budget standoff between bill clinton and newt gingrich. so it could happen, ali and nobody wants it to happen. although neither side is taking steps to avoid it from happening. 23 it happens, it means that all the nonessential functions of government stop operating. and the one thing a lot of people have been asking us about is social security. those checks will still go out. but a lot of things won t happen. and most people don t think about how tied they are to the federal government until something like this happens. harold larson is an op-ed columnist with the washington
telling republicans, you go first. and the republicans saying no, no, mr. president, you go first, you re the president, you re the leader and both of them are trying to avoid you know, getting, being the first one out of the gate, to get their heads above the trenchline. they know how many shots they re going to take. but it is not leadership. when you try to duck as both sides are now doing, you cannot call it leadership. and the country is going to pay a big price for this unless they get serious. now i have to say, ali, if one side can come out of this victorious, if the republicans were to come out of this victorious, it would give that side some momentum. heading into the bigger fights ahead. again over entitlements, defense and taxes. so the jockeying is not unimportant. but it s, but it s phony in terms of what the real needs are of the deficit. let me ask harold. harold, one of the problems we ve got in this country, like you said, our poll show that americans say to congres
side, is the left not giving the president permission to do what he needs to do, including compromise and tackling these entitlements programs? well i think there s very little public sentiment. if you just noted, ali, for cuts to social security and medicare. and particularly on the democratic side. these are programs that the democrats originated and have always been identified with. and many of us on the progressive part of the democratic party think it would be hugely injurious to the economy and the people s purchasing power, things like that if you, if you made any serious cuts to things like social security. and then on the immediate particulars of the cutbacks that the republicans have proposed for the continuing resolution, it s a political agenda. it goes after the agencies that regulate wall street, things like that. this has no impact on the budget. it has real impact on republican priorities to create a totally deregulated economy. yeah, but harold i m going to let
post. a u.s.a. today /gallup poll shows that two-thirds of americans, 60% of americans want democrats and republicans in congress to compromise to avoid a shutdown rather than to stick to their guns. 32% say stick to your guns. let s start right here. what would a budget deal look like, harold, if you and steve moore, the left and the right, could meet in the middle, which is what 60% of americans seem to think that s what they would like the congress to do. when american people say they want government to meet in the middle and compromise, don t have that clear an idea of what they want funded, what they don t want funded. i think this is very hard stuff. because the republicans in the house have said the condition for reaching a deal is you ve got to agree to our $61 billion of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year all out of discretionary domestic spending. that s going to be very hard.