President Barack Obama and the Democrats are still locked in a battle with the GOP over the current government shutdown. But does it really matter when the shutdown ends? According to a White House official, the Democrats are “winning” and therefore “we don’t care when shutdown ends.”
The unnamed White House official made those comments during a discussion with the Wall Street Journal . The official admits that Obama’s team are in no rush to end the standoff, which is only working to make the GOP look like the enemy.
A recent poll from The WSJ shows that Democrats are receiving only a small part of the blame over the current government shutdown. The margin of blame is narrower than it was during the 1995 and 1996 shutdowns.
The new poll also finds that “people may not sympathize with his [Obama’s] refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling.”
If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling by October 18, the US Treasury Department says the nation’s debt will be in default.
After hearing about the White House officials stance on the government shutdown issue, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney spoke with Politico. According to Carney, the administration is ready to “disavow” any idea that Obama and his team don’t care about the shutdown.
After his discussion with Politico, Jay Carney posted the following tweet:
Do you think President Obama and the Democratic Party are delaying the government shutdown negotiations in order to make the GOP look increasingly bad to voters?