i m going comfortable doing so. the majority of americans don t think this is the thing. if that s true nationwide, you could imagine how much larger that number is in some of these deep red states like north dakota or west virginia or indiana. all these democratic senators have said they re going to vote yes on this cr. the president s approval number has actually gone up over the past month or so. right now 40% of the american public approve of the job he s doing. 55% disapprove. but that s an improvement from a month ago. right. he s been at 37, 38. maybe the tax cut helped him a little bit. a government shutdown when you re the president does not make it look like you re in charge, does not show you leading the country very well. i think that will probably not help him. that said, do i think the democrats are in a tough spot here because the polling suggests people want to avoid a shutdown. democrats in 2013 tried to avoid
this point. i asked this senior white house official, is this vote going to be on the house cr. and the senior white house official said, yes, the house cr, quote, for now. that appears to be some kind of indication that things are fluid at this point and something else could be voted on before it s all said and done. they do expect over here at the white house to be some kind of vote tonight in the senate on this house continuing resolution. at this point, nobody has given us any indication this is going to pass the senate tonight. if it were to pass the senate and if there were modifications, it would then have to go back to the house for passage as well. how far are democrats willing to go to avoid a government shutdown? i ll speak live with chris van holland there joining us from capitol hill. this, as the clock ticks down toward the deadline. hi i m joan lunden.
look at long-term reforms. there s a number of the new senators led by david perdue from georgia looking at ways to make sure we don t keep doing these crs or omnibuses at the end of the year that are these massive spending bills. we re trying to get democrats interested in these long-term reforms. but tonight the most immediate thing is to keep our government open and not shut down the government. i m hoping that my colleagues in the senate, democrats and republicans will agree and we pass this cr in a couple hours. a lot of us are hoping that. those of us who have lived through these government shutdowns here in washington and elsewhere know the pain that s going to be suffered as a result and the enormous cost to american taxpayers down the road, loss in revenue, loss in the economy. it s a big, big deal. good luck. thank you. senator dan sullivan of alaska. just ahead, we re going to get another update on all the last-ditch efforts to keep the government running.
another thing interesting about lindsey graham, he also said he would not vote for the house passed cr, which tells you something. which is that mitch mcconnell may not have 50 republican votes for the partisan house passed bill. so mitch mcconnell has probably failed to get a majority of his republicans to vote for his bill. there s a bipartisan that will pass easily. but he can t get the votes for the house cr. so he s leaning on democrats to cover for his own failure. i ve been wondering about that myself, and i ve been wondering about whether the democrats and chuck schumer should drop any 60-vote threshold and watch this go to a vote on the senate floor and see if it fails on the majority
negotiations in my life. another thing interesting about lindsey graham, he also said he would not vote for the house passed cr, which tells you something. which is that mitch mcconnell may not have 50 republican votes for the partisan house passed bill. so mitch mcconnell has probably failed to get a majority of his republicans to vote for his bill. there s a bipartisan that will pass easily. but he can t get the votes for the house cr. so he s leaning on democrats to cover for his own failure. i ve been wondering about that myself, and i ve been wondering about whether the democrats and chuck schumer should drop any 60-vote threshold and watch this go to a vote on the senate floor and see if it fails on the majority