Web Video: Congress and President Obama barrel toward 2013 shutdown

GWEN IFILL: Shutdowns and showdowns over budget politics, diplomacy and threats of every kind, tonight on “Washington Week.”

MS. IFILL: We start on the Hill, where the Senate voted today to turn aside a Republican effort to strip funding for the health care law from the budget. The vote divided Republicans, threw the bill back to the fractious House, and set the stage for more health care fights to come.

One unanswered question: if the House does not agree with the Senate approach, will the government be forced to shut down when the fiscal year ends, Monday at midnight?

Ted Cruz, who tried to delay the vote by talking for 21 straight hours, said the Senate is not listening to the American people.

SEN. CRUZ: (From tape.) When we’re home on the campaign trail, we say we listen, and yet something about this Senate floor, something about Washington, D.C. – I don’t know if it’s the water, something in the air, the cherry blossoms, but people get here and they stop listening to the American people.

MS. IFILL: The president took it to the campaign trail.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: (From tape.) Congress needs to pass a budget on time. Congress needs to put an end to governing from crisis to crisis. This is not about the fortunes of any one party. This is not about politics. This is about the future of our country.

MS. IFILL: So we know the arguments. What happens next, Karen?

KAREN TUMULTY: Well, what happens now is I think all eyes are on John Boehner and whether he can come up between now and the beginning of the new fiscal year, midnight, October 1st, that’s Tuesday, with some kind of bill that could keep the government open.

Now, that’s going to mean appeasing his tea party members on his side of the Capitol and also coming up with something that is acceptable to the Senate. And, otherwise, we’re – you know, we’re into shutdown time.

And, ironically enough, the government would shut down but “Obamacare” would proceed on that very day and enrollment in the exchanges would begin whether or not the government shuts down.

MS. IFILL: You know, we – it’s interesting to me that this has been bounced back and forth, little ping pong ball between the House and the Senate that as we sit here at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night, they both left town. There’s no all-week long discussions and meetings that we know about trying to figure this out before Monday at midnight.

GLORIA BORGER: What’s stunning to me and I think all of us have covered these kind of on-the-brink sorts of things is that there really aren’t many behind-closed-door discussions at all between Democrats and Republicans. The Republicans are busy and they’re going to have a meeting at noon on Saturday trying to figure out how they can get their own caucus together.’

MS. IFILL: On the House side.

MS. BORGER: On the House side. But there is no sort of closed door negotiations, White House staffers, Hill staffers, how do we work out X, Y and Z – zero, nada, none of that because the president has said, we are not going to negotiate on this, period. We don’t negotiate, as he put it, with somebody who’s trying to burning your house down or whatever. I mean, they’re using really strong language over at the White House, hostage-taking, that kind of thing.

MS. IFILL: Bomb strapped to the chest.

MS. BORGER: Bomb strapped to the chest. They’re just not talking.

…

MS. IFILL: So the question becomes how far are Republicans willing to go on this? Let’s listen to Ted Cruz a little bit because he was the ringleader this week, and, apparently tonight continues to be.

SEN. CRUZ: (From tape.) Every Republican has been outspoken and eloquent against “Obamacare.” And when the House stands up and does the right thing, I think it will present a terrific opportunity for any – every Senate Republican to stand arm in arm with the House Republicans.

MS. IFILL: He’s speaking – he’s sending a pretty strong signal there.

MS. TUMULTY: And what we found out today, something truly extraordinary, a report in the National Review was that even as John Boehner was in the House trying to figure out what to do next, Ted Cruz was in a meeting talking to House Republicans telling them to rebel against their own speaker, which was really – you know, Speaker Cruz.

MS. IFILL: Unheard of.

MS. TUMULTY: Really extraordinary.

MS. BORGER: That’s a no-no. That’s a big no-no trying to do that.

KIMBERLY DOZIER: So I’m wondering, if the government shuts down, midnight, Monday night into Tuesday, who will get the blame? Who will be the villain here from the public’s point of view?

MS. TUMULTY: Right now, the polls suggest the public is sort of evenly divided, but I think if you talk to anyone who lived through this the last time and – you know, we’re talking about less than one fifth of the House – of the House Republicans, they are pretty clear that they know which side has the bully pulpit and which side is going to get blamed.

MS. IFILL: In the meantime, the Democrats all are saying – professing sadness rather than anger, and they are saying, this is a terrible thing the Republicans are doing, whatever shall I do?

Let’s listen to Harry Reid today. We’re hearing a lot of words from the president, people like Harry Reid, and they’re using strong language.

SENATOR HARRY REID (D-NV) [House Majority Leader]: (From tape.) The people want to work with us to improve “Obamacare.” We’ve done that before. We’re happy to work with them, but not in some slam-bang, force us to do it – (inaudible). We’re not going to be extorted.

MS. IFILL: We’re not going to be extorted. Harry Reid means to say the strong languages in the most mildest possible way. But what do you do about that? What do the Democrats do, just sit back and let it happen?

MS. BORGER: Well, first of all, they’re sitting back and letting it happen because the fight is on the Republican side for a change and they kind of like that. So they’re –

MS. IFILL: We saw the spectacle of Bob Corker, the senator from Tennessee taking on Ted Cruz on the floor.

MS. BORGER: Right. And they’re kind of stirring the pot, obviously, because they believe that they’re not the problem. They believe that the public doesn’t want to shut the government down. They believe they have a very good case to make, that they’re not shutting, you know, the government down.

So I think what Harry Reid is doing is saying, you know, don’t look at me; it’s not us; washing his hands of it. That’s exactly what we heard the president do when he spoke in Maryland the other day and today.

And I think, you know, this is a White House that believes right now that they’re on the better side of this argument. I would argue, in the long term though, in answer to your question about who does the public blame, at some point people expect the president to lead.