Congress is currently negotiating the terms of a Republican “surrender” over the government shutdown said Time‘s Mark Halperin on Monday’s Morning Joe.
“It’s just a question of the terms of surrender,” Halperin said of the current political stalemate that has left Americans overwhelmingly opposed to their representatives, particularlyRepublicans.
“We’ve talked about Democrats giving Republicans an opportunity to save face: I think the White House and Harry Reid would like to humiliate the Republicans and like to send a message that if you’re led around by Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin going forward, the same thing will happen to you again,” Halperin said. “So they’re going for the best, toughest deal they can get.”
But it’s a risky dynamic, he said, because the country’s economy is on the line.
“Part of what’s driving the dynamic now is Democrats know they are winning and Harry Reid and the White House have the attitude of, ‘Why should we give anything because they’re coming our way,’ and they’re waiting,” Halperin said. “There’ll be no big deal, I think they’ll still pass something short-term. There could be a miscalculation, because the Senate tends to think the House can act fast. The House tends to think the Senate act fast. They may not have back-timed this well enough to actually get it done. The big thing will be if the market goes bonkers in the next 48 hours, I think everybody will act fast and we can get a short deal, but no big deal, no long deal.”
Later on Morning Joe, Halperin took a guess on when a deal would happen: “Senate deal today,” he said. “Boehner caves. They pass the Senate deal on Wednesday.”
“Really?” host Joe Scarborough asked.
“Sure, why not,” Halperin replied.
Jane Timm