democrats feel they have an extremely strong hand to play right now. it s a unifying issue coming into this majority. and, again, what we saw today, lamar alexander, republican senator, he put forward three options that could move past this shutdown impasse. none of those involved what the president is asking for, $5.6 billion. so i think among republicans who are not necessarily in the president s base and his core constituency, certainly an acknowledgment that the $5 billion of wall funding or perhaps even less than that is just not possible. and sung minn, almost a million americans are either furloughed so not being paid or working without pay. many government workers who don t make all that much money and some do live paycheck to paycheck. and it s unclear when and if and how this is going to end. take a listen to president trump when asked how long the shutdown might continue. how long are you willing to keep the government shut down?