Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz on Monday predicted that the government shutdown could soon reach its end.
While speaking on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” with Joe Mathieu, Luntz answered whether or not the shutdown will impact Tuesday’s elections in Virginia.
“In Virginia, there are so many government employees or family members of the government employees, or someone whose best friend is a government employee, and they’re fed up with this,” Luntz replied. “You hear people complaining about airports being — long lines and flights being delayed. You hear people complaining about not getting their paycheck, which is real.”
“There are so many people in America that live paycheck-to-paycheck and they can’t afford to miss even one check,” he continued. “And right now, they’re in pressure — they’re under pressure and they’re in trouble, which is why I actually expect the government to reopen by next week, another week from now, because, in the end, nobody wants to be held responsible for people literally starving.”
While Senate Republicans on Monday said that they could be close to a deal, there has not been much progress on the rising costs of health care ahead of the end-of-year expiration of Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits.
Several centrist Democrats have alerted Republicans to the possibility of reaching an agreement in the coming days. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also told reporters that she’s “cautiously hopeful” that the shutdown could end later in the week.
“There’s more specificity in what’s being sought, and in addition, I get the impression that for some Democrats, waiting until after [Tuesday’s] election is an issue,” she said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) added his voice to the growing number of lawmakers “optimistic” about the potential end of the shutdown in the coming days.
But Democrats worry that President Trump is not being serious about the negotiations to extend health care subsidies. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) was among those with concerns, and said Democrats would back a funding bill “at the time the president gets engaged and we have a real negotiation about what to do to deal with these rising costs.”
Kelly added that Trump needs to be “talking to us.”
Further negotiations could be impacted by the results of the Tuesday elections. Early polling suggests Democrats will win across Virginia, New York City and New Jersey’s races, along with the Proposition 50 redistricting proposal possibly cruising to victory in California. This could give Democrats enough leverage to bring Republicans back to the negotiating table.
However, Republicans said the election results, regardless of the outcome, could mark a “change” in Democrats’ shutdown strategy, according to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
“Maybe after tomorrow, they’ll come to their common senses again and do the right thing,” Johnson said at a press conference on Monday. “We certainly pray that is true.”
Thune shared a similar sentiment, but added that for Democrats, it seemed as though the elections matter.
“I don’t know why it should,” he added.
