The republican party. Whats the republican end game. There is no end game. I didnt come here to shut down the government. We have a good day for the anarchists. Sponsored by the word why. I talked to the president earlier tonight. We will not go to conference with a gun to our heads. Also brought to you by how . Breakdown. Meltdown. Shutdown. Republicans chose to shut down the federal government. Federal workers are paying the price. All because they didnt like one law. This is 1995 all over again. John boehner may be scrambling for a lifesaver, president obama and harry reid are not throwing it to him. The president went to his bully pulpit to explain to the nation that republicans made this mess and it is on republicans to clean it up. At midnight last night for the first time in 17 years, the republicans in congress chose to shut down the federal government. Let me be more specific. One faction of one party in one house of congress in one branch of government shut down major parts of the government. All because they didnt like one law. And then the president hit the most important republican failure here. There are enough votes to fund the government, but john boehner is a frayed to let democracy resolve this crisis. Many representatives, including an increasing number of republicans have made it clear that had they been allowed by Speaker Boehner to take an up or down vote on keeping government open with no partisan strings attached. Enough votes from both parties would have kept the American Peoples government open and operating. Here is why that is true. There is a floor off but 200 democrat votes to fund the government. It would take 18 more to pass the funding bill. Several republicans say there are dozens of their members who want to do that. Boehner refuses to allow that bipartisan up or down vote. And that might be how this all end. House republicans arent there yet. Here is boehner on the floor today. Our country has big problems. To day our government has big problems. The only way these problems are going to be resolved if we silt down, amicably and keep the American People in mind and come to an agreement. House republicans d on this funding impasse was a nonanswer no one took seriously. They wanted a ninth inning Conference Meeting to go back over demands to you guessed it to undermine obama care. The senate rejected that. This morning as expected. We had this debate continue. Boehner went then to his plan e, a piecemeal approach to funding a few parts of the government he likes. Support for veterans. National parks. And this one is important to beltway residents, funding for operations of the district of columbia. That failed as well. Now there are some signs of cracking. A Virginia Republican took to twitter with a novel idea today. We fought the good fight he wrote. Time for a clean cr. Look, politics love the Bumper Sticker simplicity of tweet negotiations. He did one better and took the case to Rachel Maddow on her show and want to fox news. The question is does a shutdown advance our goals . I hold the view it doesnt. I have said so. He is not alone. Republican colleague from virginia frank wolf also backs what theyre calling a clean cr. And he denounced this shutdown today, on the house floor. Mr. Speaker im skaulg for the government to reopen. Calling for leadership on both sides to resolve the issues. The fbi is being impacted. The cia is being impact the. The National Terrorism center which is looking at lead that are coming in to keep this nation safe is being impacted. And nih, cancer research, Alzheimers Research are being impacted. People and families are being impact the. This is bad for america. Its bad for america. Enough its enough. Its time to be leaders. Its time to govern. Open up the government. Republican congressman, peter king no longer alone in whipping House Republicans against their fellow tea partiers. There is no reason for the government to be shut down. A fools error, started by ted cruz. We cant just blame him. We have to also blame those in the republican conference, 30, 40 who stood with him who were willing to undo what john boehner wanted to do which was, to pass the cr, move this along. We have 180 to 200 members of the House Republican conference who have a serious sense of governance. And do believe we have an affirmative obligation. One more breakthrough you need new know about. Republican house members arent just speak out against the shutdown itself or some of their extremist colleagues they are starting to openly admit how the monster was created. We are in a terrible situation here. In congress we have these gerrymandered districts. Congress doesnt look like america. And so we are at loggerhead. Really no surprise on the type of districts that, you know that we have created in all of the state legislatures. Joining me now, e. J. Deion, columnist for the Washington Post senior fellow at brookings. And joy reid, an msnbc contributor. You heard it right there. A member of congress we know that they dont usually say. This congress doesnt look like america. Its become a place where the members are picking the voters. And the voters dont have much of a say in picking the members. Yeah, like a revelation. Sure on fox news. Did you see where the other guy, before, that congressman was from virginia. If you are in virginia, one of the dwindling number of sort of blue and purple state republicans. You are panicking right now. Your district looks more like america than lets say districts in alabama, georgia, or texas or ted cruzs state. The problem in virginia is you have a governors race coming up. That sequester was hurting you. A lot of people mill terry. Government contractors. And this shutdown is hurting you where you live. So that dwindling number of purple district republicans. There arent many of them left. They actually could feel very real electoral effects from this. Theyre not from the right. So they, yeah, are raising the alarm. Hitting the point, different today than yesterday. Which is, this thing has gone main line. This its not a political story anymore. It is an american story. E. J. , take a listen to what, tenny steny hoyer said, discussing how we got here and how balanced the offer was on the table. What compromise are we talking about . We are taking your number. Your number. And you will not take yes for an answer. How sad. What a shameful day this its in the history of the house of representatives. E. J. , what he is talking about there the fact that the proposal on the table, the clean cr, funding the government still would continue those republican desired sequester cuts. Well, no thats exactly right. I mean all this talk of lets have negotiations and compromise. Democrats have given up, depend ing how you count it. 70 billion worth of programs. They would like to fund. A lot of liberals are not happy with how much they have agreed to lop off. That was given to the republicans. The republicans could have come out of this claiming a big victory in saying we are keeping Government Spending at the sequester levels which really are too low. The fact is from now on there is nothing left to compromise on. Because, it is not a concession for a member of congress to agree to open the government. Thats what politicians are supposed to do. Its not a concession to say, oh, i guess well vote for the government to pay its bills. And thats why you are seeing no action. And i think, it would be a terrible mistake to make any concessions now on the basis of a shutdown or threat on the debt ceiling. I think this is the time to say no more hostage taking politics. Thats why you are hearing virtual silence from democrats. The numbers back that up. 70 billion difference if we were looking at the actual budgetary proposals of the president. He already walked away. He said fine i will be responsible. Try to meet you more than halfway. So, that its why it doesnt make a lot of sense to talk about whether there is phone calls. Right. Whats there to talk about. There its nothing left to give. The budget as the cr would have it is almost down off to the paul ryan levels of funding. So right, democrats have already given republican is a lot when it comes to the actual number. Republicans are now asking for things that are extraneous to the budget. Theyre still insisting we want to defund or delay the Affordable Care act. We are now talking smaller and smaller length of time between the hostage negotiations. We are not talking a oneyear budget. Not talking about a continuing resolution. Six months. Eight months. Two months. Does that mean every two months. Every six weeks. How short is this going to become. Republicans tried a strategy to go micro. Do one program at a time. We will give you just the National Parks in exchange for a hostage. Okay, now sending hostages out. Out of 14 story windows. Thats their version of negotiation. Amazing. We could do one week. Sort of look the cash till pay day loan program for the federal government. Probably not a good idea. Want to play for both of you what congressman tom cotton said, he is from arkansas, very different view of this as a republican who feels they need how to get more. Lets take a listen. The House Republicans have acted reasonably and responsibly to act on two separate principles. The government should be funded. And the American People should get relief from obama care. We have made reasonable, responsible compromises. We couldnt repeal obama care. So we offered to defund it. We offered to delay it for merely one year. E. J. , he may believe that is the reasonable offer. Can he get a lot of other people around the country to believe that. He can get a lot of republicans to belief that. That is it. Not even all republicans if you look at the polls. What really struck me. The Tea Party Folks talk all the time about their love of the constitution. They dont believe in the constitutional process. They believe in using power and force. Because what the constitution tells us its if you are going to repeal a bill, you need a vote. You need to win an election. On the issue in question. Then you get the votesen congress and you pass whatever you want to pass including the repeal of obama care. They cannot pass that through the senate. They cannot get it by president obama. It is not normal to stay well we can get what we want, so we are just going to shut down the whole thing. Thats what the problem is here. You know, just ironic that all of this is happening on the first day when, a whole lot of americans seem to be eager to sign up for obama care. And i think to get past this first day without any, any harm being done to obama care is a big deal. E. J. , an important point. You are hitting on the structural tension. The tea party things it has the a veto over what the president does. The constitution wasnt written that way. So far looks like the public its frustrated with that approach. Joy and e. J. , thank you for joining me tonight. Coming up. Good to be here. Obama care, day one. Despite republicanss any best efforts. Turns out millions are flocking to the state Exchange Sites as the Affordable Care act makes its debut. The last word puts an apb out on the man who started congress on this road to a shutdown. Where is ted cruz hiding . Well tell you. Later, the government doesnt have to be this dysfunctional. Lawrence odonnell. Chris matthews will explain why. All coming up. 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Im beginning to sense a pattern. Get up to 140 in mailin rebates when you buy four select tires with the Ford Service Credit card. Whered you get that sweater vest . Your ford dealer. The New York Daily News had this, the take on house of cards starring kevin spacey. Not the first time they called out the irresponsible side of a shutdown fight. This was the cover when Newt Gingrich forced another government shutdown. Didnt work out very well for newt in the long run. Today republican who drove his party over the cliff is keeping a lower profile especially given his hobbies of talking and well, talking. Where exactly did ted cruz go . Thats up next. [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] 1. 21 gigawatts. Today, thats easy. Ge is revolutionizing power. Supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. Using data predictively to help power entire cities. So the turbines of today. Will power us all. Into the future. [ male announcer ] may your lights always be green. [ tires screech ] [ beeping ] may you never be stuck behind a stinky truck. [ beeping ] may things always go your way. But its good to be prepared. Just in case they dont. Toyota. Lets go places, safely. With a 21 hour nonfilibuster and apeer anss on every news show that would take him, seemed like senator ted cruz was everywhere, the one ready with the match and gas lain to burn down the house. Well now the fire is rising, the government its closed. People are mad at the republicans and congress and ted cruz has gone mia when it comes to governing. We last saw him on cnbc yesterday at 7 00 p. M. Then poof, during all of the floor speeches in the final hours last night in the senate and in the news conferences in interviews as the shutdown was beginning and even to day as the senate traded barbs there was no ted cruz. In fact the closest we came to seeing him was, you could say, bff, utah senator mike lee on fox last night. Lee pound up for a floor speech this morning as well. Meanwhile cruz, or one of his potentially furloughed Staff Members have been tweeting from his account. And cruz did find time to hang with Laura Ingraham where he blasted harry reid again. It is abundantly clear that harry reid wants the shutdown. And now he has gotten the shutdown he wants. The fact when the house voted at 12 30 in the morning sunday. Reid didnt bother to call the senate back. He left everyone on vacation. All day sunday. Lets come back monday afternoon. See he doesnt like how theyre not at work. In the senate. And it was all day, no cruz, but then, suddenly, cruz was back. On oreilly. The top story, reaction from washington. Ted cruz, republican from texas. Well, when the senate calls it is no cruz. When oreilly calls, cruz answers. Joining me now. The washington editor for national review, cnbc contributor. You have been all over these stories. You are well sourced with the tea party. I dont know if that makes time for you in washington fun and exciting. Or just repetitive. But explain to us what this new ted cruz strategy is. Des moines iowa, in august, the idea of defunding the government over obama care really was just a kernel in the conservative imagination. It has gone beyond senator cruzs wildest dreams and led to a government shutdown. He has gotten, achieved so much from this fight. So i think what we are seeing now is him receding from the limelight. Trying to let boehner, harry reid, fight it out over the defunding of the shutdown. He is going to take a lower profile over the next few weeks. Lets look at the claims he is making. Discussed on msnbc. The dishonesty in a lot of his campaigning. Take a listen to his discussion of what he views as compromises offered by republicans on oreilly. Lot me point out, bill. Four times already, the house of representatives offered compro is my. Over and over and over. Sent to the senate. And four times harry reid has said, no compromise, no negotiation, absolutely nothing. In fact it is reported hashy reid urged the president dont even talk to congressional leaders. He talked to iran do not talk to leaders. Robert thats stale. Do you think that gets him where he need to be at this point . It gets him where he need to be within the republican base. When senator cruz has done in less than a year in office. Raise expectations within divided government on the right that make defunding or negotiating out a compromise with harry reid seem like a realistic goal. When you talk to leadership sources. Senator cruz is raising expectations making it hard for any real deal to emerge. Yeah, hit it on the head. If the final strategy is to the get the president to sign the cancellation of obama care, right . I dont think there is a strategist around who believes that. We have been playing footage of everyone saying so. I would disagree a little bit. He has the impact. Not sure the strategy exists. Take a listen to what he tried to explain was the end game to Chris Wallace a week or so ago. Here is the question everyone on both sides in washington is asking, what is your end game. Lets say that you block consideration of any bill in the senate. Lets say you lose, and the bill goes into the senate. They take on obama care. They send it become to the house. Whats your end game. Because the the government is going to shut down. A week from monday. Well, i dont want the government to shut down. The American People dont want the government off to shut down. I dont think harry reid and president obama should shut down the government. So, linguistic jujitsu there. People know congress shut it down. Even false equivalency narrative refers to congress not the president shutting it down. What do you make of this . What i make of this. Senator cruz started the defunding effort. I dont think he ever expected the house leadership especially, to take the