this is cnn tonight. i'm don lemon. it is midnight here on the east coast. the dysfunction of the federal government on full display. two days ago, the president said, i would love to see a shutdown. and now, here it is. he's getting his wish. let's go to capitol hill. phil mattingly. is the government shut down?

>> the government is shut down. mostly that will dictate if this has a real impact. hundreds of federal workers, aid organizations, health care organizations are tied to a government shutdown. the real question is, will this last long enough to have an impact on them. what we know, at this moment, the senate is about to gavel back into session. we expect a note on the senate floor about 1:00 a.m. they should have a final vote on the deal. this has been clear from the very beginning. when senators woke up, they thought they had the easy job. they knew they had the votes to move this thing forward. because senator rand paul has made clear, he wants an amendment vote, he wants an opportunity to address the spending in this deal that goes beyond what should be in any deal, he was not willing to give consent to actually move this vote up. where does that leave things right now? senator paul is not going to get his amendment vote.

that will delay things for an hour and a half to two hours in the senate. things get kicked out to the house. that is far from a sure thing at this point. house democrats making clear, that immigration is their issue. they want daca addressed. two minutes ago, leader nancy pelosi, reiterating, they want a firm commitment about a specific daca process. if they don't get it, they might not give him the votes. we're closer to one step being passed. >> you have a monitor there. you can see air. are they praying? are they gaveling in? what's going on? >> they're gaveling in. they went into recess about an hour agoago. why they needed to do that, they needed to start a new day in the senate. you have chaplain barry black giving a prayer, like he does every session. they will gavel in. and then, this will start. we don't expect the vote for another hour. expect rand paul to come to the

floor again and plead his case, one they've made clear they're not going to give him. then, the process will start. we're not sure when it will it will end. >> let's talk about the house. do we know if house democrats are going to get onboard? i asked bakari that earlier. he wasn't so sure. >> we don't. i'll take you behind the scenes. house republicans that i'm talking to, house republicans that are working in the whip operation, they're counting votes, to say these things. they feel the votes will be there. there are a lot of democrats that care deeply about the spending bill. don, keep in mind, leader nancy pelosi, who is opposed to this deal, her staff was crafting this budget deal, more than $130 billion to address things like opioid addiction treatment, and veterans affairs issues. those are things the democrats have been pushing for for years now. they're going to get a

lengthening of the children's program and disaster relief. these are things that democrats want to vote for. while democrats haven't given firm commitments, they will be there. to give you a sense of the strategy here, this morning, leader pelosi told her caucus, don't tip your hands. don't let republicans know where you are on this because this is our leverage to try to get that commitment from speaker paul ryan. that's frustrated republicans throughout the day. they don't have a firm idea of where the votes actually are. as i noted, they're moving forward, don. they're willing to call the bluff. they're willing to take the risk. we're going to see this play out on the house floor. >> don't go anywhere, phil. we need you. stand by. while we wait for phil to update us and while we wait for this vote to happen and see what's going on in washington, want to bring in cnn political commentator, former chief of staff to nancy pelosi. good to have you on. >> thank you. >> this is the second shutdown

in three week. this is rand paul, a republican, who engineered it. did he have a good enough reason to do it, in your opinion? >> i don't believe he did. the bill was negotiated in a bipartisan way. and the bill was supported by many democrats and many republicans. the issue that stands in the way of passing this bill is simple. speaker ryan has refused to give a guarantee of a firm process to democrats in the house. they see that they're very concerned about daca. and they're asking, why can't we get something similar in the house. the easiest thing for a speaker to do is to schedule a vote. >> yeah. >> the second-easiest thing for a speaker to do is to whip a vote. when you whip the vote and you know what the vote count is, you bring it up for a vote. speaker ryan has the ability to tell leader pelosi, i understand

this is something that's important to you. let's agree on a process and let's move forward because this bill is too important for the country. >> if this does get out of the senate, ultimately the house -- if it gets out of the senate in the wee hours, the house will have to join republicans to move this bill forward, right? >> that's right. every bill that deals with funding issues, since that was there and on, needs democratic votes. and it needs republican votes. that's true. i think the caucus is starting to galvanize around the point that why can't we get the same treatment that our senate colleagues got from senator mcconnell. if we're expected to supply the votes, why can't we get that treatment. speaker ryan has 238 republicans. he can only afford to lose a handful every time. but if that's the case, he should talk to the democratic leader and say, let's come up

with a process. i don't know what's going to happen, to be honest, don. i don't know if the bill is going to go down in the house or not. but it's got some very good priorities for democrats. education, veterans funding, opioids. this is a moment of truth for the caucus. >> and if mitch mcconnell does step up, he may come to the floor, to the podium, i may have to cut you off here. just a question, is there any doubt in your mind that this budget will pass? >> i don't know. i don't know. >> that means there's doubt. >> there is doubt, for sure. there is doubt for sure. you know, that's the thing, that the democratic caucus, that's the message they had delivered to speaker ryan. we're not going to tell you where the votes are because we're going to use as much leverage as we can to try to get the promise from you. >> you were chief of staff to nancy pelosi. she set a record for speaking on

the house floor over eight hours. she wants a vote on daca. do you see that happening? >> you know, this has been going on for 17 years. and i worked for senator durban 13 years ago, after he introduced the dream act. this is an issue that's been going on for 17 years. my feeling is we are very close to achieving something great in passing a bill, finally. i think that's why leader pelosi stood on the floor for eight hours. it amazies me. i got a call that said, she had been on the floor for about an hour. seven hours later, she is still speaking. this is the passion that surrounds the issue for the democratic caucus. i have a feeling we're going to reach an agreement this year. it's too important to let this go. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> i appreciate it, sir. good to see you. we're up late. we may have you back.

keep your phone on. >> it's on. >> i want to bring back in cnn global affairs analyst, david rohde, alice and bakari sellers. scott jennings is back. scott is doing double-duty. everybody is up late because we're working for you. we're working for you at home. why am i hearing phil? okay. let's talk about this. rebekah, who owns this shutdown? here we go. who owns it? >> well, don, tonight, rand paul, obviously. he's the one holding up this vote in the senate. but the question, i think, the most important question here, is what happened when this bill inevitably, gets over to the house side early in the morning hours today. it could be a few hours from now, around 6:00 a.m. we don't quite know yet. but what are democrats going to decide? are they going to decide it is

worth holding up this piece of legislation, a big bipartisan deal that phil mattingly noted in his report. pelosi and schumer have helped to craft this deal. is it more important that they block this over immigration? a repeat of the movie we saw a few weeks ago. i was here with you on the air, late night when the government shutdown, when democrats in the senate were protesting over immigration and the fact that it hadn't been solved. so, are democrats in the house going to do that, essentially, again? and do they feel like they have the political capital to do it again? that's really the big question. >> does senator rand paul have a point, scott? what happened to dealing with the deficit and not spending so much? >> yeah. he's making a very valid point on the floor of the senate tonight. other republicans would say this, we ran on increasing military spending, rebuilding our military. this bill does that. reran on tackling the opioid

crisis. this bill allocates money for that. we talked about disaster relief. this bill does that. you have a case of republicans having run on and talked about competing priorities and they've chosen the priorities tonight that prior spending. i think the vast majority of the american people want a stronger military. they want the military to be rebuilt. a lot of this money is going in that direction. and frankly, most republicans want that. that's why you're seeing the party go one way and rand paul go the other tonight. >> some are questioning, you know, because paul ryan, they have the same questions for paul ryan and mitch mcconnell, they rallied against obama and the spending. why the change of heart? what has changed with the republican party? >> a lot of it is to avoid the situation we were in a few weeks ago. they're trying to get bipartisan cooperation. they're trying to bring in the spending proposals that the democrats want. and they want to honor their promises to show commitment to

the military. that costs a great deal of money. the problem is, this should have been, as always, it should have been discussed much earlier than the day of the shutdown. this, unfortunately, has become the redheaded stepchild, this shutdown. >> why was it brought to the shutdown? >> this is washington. this is how they operate. rand paul's frustration is they did wait until the last minute and they get this huge bill and they didn't have time to have input on it. this is what he's trying to do. let us have the opportunity to weigh in on it. the vote that he wanted today would have taken 15 minutes. and they could have had other input in that. and once again, they're waiting until the last minute, similar to what has happened in the past, making people realize, we have a deadline, you're up against the gun, let's pass this and that's not -- senator paul was not going to have that. >> this is not playing well out there. my niece who is married to a

marine is furious. she was furious the last shutdown. he's on a training base. everything is closing down. a text from an afghanistan veteran in the u.s. army. he's saying this is ridiculous. this is bad for incumbents across the board. >> all sides. >> this is all noise. the republicans, the democrats. this is a dysfunctional government. that's no way to run this government. and it really impacts people out there. and they just find it unacceptable. >> should democrats in the house -- >> if i was an official, if i was representing the 16th congressional district of the united states congress, wouldn't vote for it. you have to stand up for something. and i think that we can keep talking about daca and kicking the can down the road. rebecca berg brought up a point that this was ancillary and made it seem like this was something that hadn't been done before. in 2013 and i believe 2010, the republicans held up or had a

shutdown for repeal and replace obamacare, something that was ancillary to the budget. we've been here before and seen things before. but democrats messed up a couple of weeks ago. there's no other way to put it. they depressed their base. the energy was tamped down. chuck schumer put his leadership in the hands of mitch mcconnell, which i think is a perilous play, at the least. now, we have someone that stood up, went to the well, who advocated the beliefs of nancy pelosi, i'm interested to see what the rest of the individuals do in her caucus. >> maria, i need you to answer on the other side. can you do that for me? >> sure. >> you'll get the first word on the other side of the break. we'll be right back. let your new pals know that according to a leading independent study, the most awarded network is now best in streaming. i think you just did. you both can get a much better view of the game on the iphone on verizon unlimited. thanks. thanks. hey, thomas, when's your flight? (gasps)

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breaking news. the federal government is officially shut down again. so, maria, as promised, what happens with daca now? >> well, we'll see. this, i think is all on the republicans. i respectfully disagree with my friend, rebecca, who said that the question after this passes the senate is what will happen with the democrats. what will the democrats do?

i'm sorry, but this is on paul ryan. and paul ryan is the speaker of the house. paul ryan is the one who heads the republicans in the house who are supposed to know how to whip a vote. and he has issues with his freedom caucus because now we have a group of republicans who all of a sudden are concerned with the deficit. where were they when they just passed a humongous tax bill that increased the deficit by $1.5 trillion? and now, they're talking about principles in terms of being deficit hawks? i'm sorry. but the hypocrisy is immense. i think that daca is still front and center. i commend nancy pelosi for making that front and center. and for making the same point that chuck schumer did in the senate, which is, if we're going to do this, if you're going to put us in a position where we're going to have to give you the votes to open the government back up, which was the case with

the senate last time they had a little bit of leverage because republicans knew they needed democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold. the republicans in the house have never approached democrats with that kind of respect because they thought they had it all on their own. and they should have it all on their own because they don't need -- they just need a clean majority. if they don't have a clean majority, don't put it on the democrats, if you're not willing to come to the table with at least an equal kind of deal that your senate counterpoint has been able to do with the democrats. >> go ahead, rebecca. >> this is essentially the same deal that chuck schumer is supporting on the senate side. and republicans on the house side have expressed that they plan to move forward with immigration reform and daca negotiations and plan to

caughtify daca. she has urged her colleagues on the democratic side to support this. she gave them permissions not to support it. the only way a bipartisan deal works is if both parties come together to support it. there's things in this deal that democrats can rally around, raising spending caps, for example. the disaster relief funding. that's why you would see potentially, politically, the blame go to the democrats because democrats and nancy pelosi have expressed they are dissatisfied with the assurances they have received on immigrati immigration. that's why they wouldn't be supporting this deal, not because of the deal itself. >> but as i understand it, paul ryan has not given that commitment. >> he has. he has. >> no. what he has said is he wants to get daca done and he will only bring a bill to the floor that the president will support. that's not what mcconnell has

said. mcconnell has committed to bring immigration to the floor and have an open and level-headed -- and have a level playing field debate that anything can come up. that's very different. that's not what paul ryan has committed to. and that's what nancy pelosi is weight for. >> mcconnell and ryan have committed to bringing daca and the comprehensive immigration issue up. the senate is going to do it next week. what paul ryan said is important. the president needs to support this because he needs to sign it into law. you can't have laws without the executive branch being onboard with this. republicans are keeping their word. mcconnell said, let's get through it, get the budget. i'm going to open the senate for a full immigration debate so 1,000 flowers can bloom. paul ryan says he wants to get a daca deal done. let this play out. the republicans are keeping their word. and i firmly believe they are going to get to a deal. >> paul ryan has not committed

in the same way that mcconnell has. he just hasn't. >> well, we let them have it for a while. >> you know, i have to point out to america, listening to that debate, and listening to rebecca and listening to scott, you would forget that the president of the united states is republican. that the senate is controlled by republicans and the house is controlled by republicans. you would forget that republicans run congress. the reason we've had shutdowns, not once but twice, is because republicans do not know how to govern. the fact we're driving this country into a ditch. >> everybody knows chuck schumer shut down the government. and including you, tonight. you are getting a deal to shut down the government. >> schumer, folks taking your advice. >> who is shutting it down tonight? >> i mean, the fact is, if you want to talk about this, the fact is, we just added and scott can twist and turn himself into a pretzel, we just added $1.4

trillion to the deficit. you can talk out of both sides of your mouth if you want to, to the american people, and one day be concerned about the deficit and the next day not be, that's a fact. you cannot deny who has a majority in the house and the senate and who is in the white house. you can try to cast blame on chuck schumer. by problem is not with the vote that chuck schumer took. we are not here with a daca deal today. let me remind you, scott and let me remind anyone listening, the reason we have to have a daca deal is because of donald trump. donald trump has rendered this country and these individuals with a certain level of uncertainty. no one will deny that republicans were a hoveell of a opposition party. >> we have to have a daca deal today because barack obama issued an unconstitutional

order. >> it's not unconstitutional. it's not unconstitutional. >> it's not unconstitutional. stop throwing that red herring out there. >> i believe i belong in the nba. that does not make it a fact. conservatives can believe that something is unconstitutional that was not make it a fact. the other fact is, it takes time to implement a law. and so, we're waiting up until march 6th to get something done. how long is mitch mcconnell or -- how long are mitch mcconnell and paul ryan going to punt this? march 7th has the ability to be one of the most devastating days in the history of this country. >> scott, if you want to respond, go ahead. >> finish your thought. >> it can be devastating. >> i want the dreamers to get what they deserve, full, legal status. i like a path to citizenship. most republicans i know, do. most republicans i know want to get this done. they also want more than just

this. they want border security. they want some work done on the broken parts of our immigration system. and it's going to start next week. >> okay. i got to get to the break. i have to get to the break. the folks on this side of this table, talk amongst yourselves. >> i am ready to jump in. up next, the rob port ee ee scandal at the white house. and one of his ex-wives, speaking out to cnn tonight.

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dale! oh, hey, rob. what's with the minivan? it's not mine. i don't -- dale, honey, is your tummy still hurting, or are you feeling better to ride in the front seat? oh! is this one of your motorcycling friends? hey, chin up there, dale. lots of bikers also drive cars. in fact, you can save big if you bundle them both with progressive. i'd like that. great. whoo. you've got soft hands. he uses my moisturizer. see you, dale. bye, rob.

breaking news in the rob porter scandal in the white house. porter was interviewed with the fbi last wall. and agents brought up what his ex-wives had alleged. porter told don mcgahn about it. that raises questions about who inside this white house knew about the allegations. one of porter's ex-wives speaking out to cnn tonight. back with me is my panel. i want to start with the latest reporting. the white house counsel, don mcgahn, may have known about rob

porter, as well as john kelly, for quite some time. >> how can this go on and why there is a problem with the security clearances of this white house? this does hurt john kelly. he digs in and he defends his staff, kelly does. and this shouldn't have happened. and i think we were talking on the break, is the clock ticking for john kelly at this point? >> do you think it is? >> this president likes to scapegoat his staff. in is an excuse he can use. >> one of the biggest problems that john kelly has and one of the things that all of us recognize is that the president treats this like a p.r. crisis. in fact, this is a cultural issue they have in the white house, when you look at the bannons and the rob porters, you see people that have character flaws, that you should know about it both young ladies, not only are they coming out publicly today.

they've written blogs about it. the fbi, the church, they went to everybody and no one would listen. i think it's a culture in the white house than a p.r. crisis. and they're handling it poorly to say the least. >> i think porter is like a lot of people that are accused of domestic abuse. they're spouse abusers hiding in plain sight. he's right there, right in front of their eyes. flags are flying from the ex-wiv ex-wives, from girlfriends, all over the place. yet, this white house looked the other way. they had every clue that led to this guy shouldn't be here. yet, they looked the other way. >> they said they felt they were misled by him. the white house is saying that. if he misled or lied to the fbi, he could be in some big trouble. >> sure. we do know -- >> and the fbi saw the pictures. >> sure. and we know the wives spoke to the fbi. and we know they had this information. there was a restraining order, all they had to do was go down

to the courts in alexandria, virginia, and find this restraining order. any research guy could have found this out. here's the problem. this white house was so consumed with the notion this concern had such an impeccable pedigree with an ivy league education -- >> and also covering their you know whats. >> certainly. and he had the work performance they felt was of such integrity. but they let that shadow their judgment that on this day and age, specifically in this #metoo day and age, they should have said, we don't care how impeccable you are, but the personal short comings, domestic abuse is abhorrent. >> they can't get people to work in this white house. that's why they value him so much. you mentioned #metoo, this is the narrative of donald trump ignoring women. this will haunt him at the polls. >> i want to hear from one of the exwives.

this is the second wife, jenny libboughby. this is her speaking to anderson cooper. how she had changed a blog post and talking to white house director hope hicks. >> i was aware of that post when it went out a year ago. and asked me to take it down two weeks ago. i think in anticipation of me being questioned about it. >> did he ever ask you to deny? >> no. we were in contact a couple of days ago, he was asking me to release a statement about my blog post. and i went back and forth with him for an hour about what language i would be comfortable with and the language he asked, i wasn't comfortable with. he came out with that statement, less than an hour later. >> can you say what he wanted you to say? >> i don't know the exact wording. but it was along the lines that

the post does not accurately depict my anmarriage. that didn't feel right to me. it does accurately depict my marriage. and another thing he wanted me to say was that i had taken some liberties with this therapeutic post, which it was for me. that i had taken liberties with the therapeutic post. when i thought about it, it didn't. >> it asked like he but asking you to deny. >> he was asking me to downplay it. he was asking me to emphasize the relationship that he and i have now, as opposed to what i experienced in our marriage. >> have you talked to him the last couple days? >> i haven't. i haven't spoken to him since that conversation. >> rob porter is in a relationship with white house press secretary hope hicks. do you think he's changed? >> i don't think he's changed. >> does that worry you?

>> it worries me for a lot of reasons. it worries me because if i'm being frank with you, if he hasn't already been abusive with hope, he will. in particularly now that he's under a lot of stress and str scrutiny, that's when the behaviors come out. if he hasn't already, he will. >> you think he can't -- he has not gotten help? he can't stop at this point? >> i don't think he's done the self-reflective work to acknowledge this issue. i don't think that he has really taken the time to deconstruct why it is that he behaves this way. until he's able to do that, i don't know that he has control over it. >> you're saying you're worried about hope hicks? >> i am worried. >> rebecca, we're sitting here in the studio and everyone is saying, this is fascinating that his ex-wife is on television with such damaging and damning

information. how damning do you think this is for the white house? >> clearly damaging that we've seen in the last day or so. this has snowballed for them. and the problem for the white house is not just what this episode in a vacuum says about someone who worked at a senior level in the white house and the white house itself. it says a larger narrative about the white house. first of all this, is a white house that doesn't respect women or is unfriendly to women, doesn't protect women, doesn't value women or trust them when they come forward with serious allegations of this kind. and also, that it elevates people who have the sorts of very serious allegations against them. and really, there's this chaos at this white house, that there isn't a sense of organization, a sense that they have the best people working there for the good of the country. that was something that john kelly was supposed to solve when

he came in as chief of staff. he was supposed to bring a sense of order to the white house. and this shows that clearly, to an extent, he did not succeed in that. >> all right, rebecca. stand by. stay with me. did rob porter resign? was he determine naterminated? the white house is changing narrative and the president's reaction to it, coming up. i'm an outdoorsman. so i've asked chase sapphire reserve cardmembers to find my next vacation. chile, what's going on? i'm at the el tatio geysers. geezer. geyser. geezer. geyser. enough. geezer. whoaa, wooooo. dude, be careful. i think you should come camping. why would i camp in the atacama desert? oh... 3x points on travel and restaurants on every continent.

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here's our breaking news. a source saying tonight that president trump is telling associates that he is dismayed at how the porter scandal is unfolding at the white house. he called reince priebus for how to handle it. maria, interesting because sources telling cnn that president trump was unhappy. remember raj shaw said they could have done a better job handling the porter situation. the white house, they could have done better. >> there's no question about that, don. let's go back to what you are

reporting. the president is not dismayed at the scandal. the president is not dismayed that his staff secretary is accused of abuse and the white house looked away. the president is dismayed at what it makes him look like. the president is dismayed on how it was handled. that right there underscores the complete, not just crisis of competency, which is what we've seen and how the whole security clearance issue was handled. and frankly, how the talking points issue was handled. i'm sorry, to have hope hicks who is romantically involved with this guy who was accused of sexually assaulting his ex-wives and he's the one that puts together the statement for the white house. and general kelly actually accepts it. >> it wasn't sexual assault, it was domestic abuse. >> domestic abuse.

that is crisis of competence. it underscores a complete crisis of character that we have seen from the beginning of this white house. i'll also say, shouldn't this really surprise us all? don't we always say an administration, a government gets its tone from the top? let's look and see who is at the top. at the top is a president of the united states who has been -- who has been accused himself by more than 16 women, from sexual harassment to sexual assault, to even rape, who he himself has professed himself a sexual assaulter and is proud of it apparently. he had a chief of staff in steve bannon that is accused of domestic abuse. this is a hole they have dug for themselves. i don't know how they're going to get out of it. but it underscores how unfit donald trump is to be president of the united states. >> scott, this is the latest in a string of blunders for kelly.

is he contributing to the chaos in the white house instead of managing the president and managing the staff? he's supposed to be chief of staff. >> i think sometimes it appears that general kelly, with some of the issues that pop up, doesn't realize how fast they can unravel and get out of control. look at what's happening in the last couple of days. this issue is completely out of control because of the way it was handled this week and over the last several months. and there was a tone deafness when people started to figure this out. more questions have been raised. they're going to be dealing with it again next week. at some juncture, they have to realize here, transparency is everything. they have to look under the hood, see who knew what and when. and they have to admit this was mishandled from the beginning and we should have acted on it. people can have bad judgment. rob porter had bad judgment. if he misled people, that was

bad judgment. but they have to get it out there. they cannot let it go for days and days and days of more questions and confusion. it's not going to stop. they have to go farther in my opinion next time. >> i was watching and like, whoa, did he just say they could have handled it better? i got to go. if you can give it to me in seconds. >> put a period at the end of the sentence. the president is dismayed about the fallout of this. this isn't a p.r. crisis. this is a crisis of character. it could have been avoided if they had not turned a blind eye to a serious issue. >> there's reporting that the president is disappointed in hope hicks, his golden girl there. golden child. the way she handled this and the russia investigation, that she is embroiled in this and the russia investigation. we'll see where this heads to. when we come back, aly raisman, accusing her former olympic team coach of knowing about larry nassar's abuse for years.

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we're back with our breaking news. ran paul speaking on the senate floor. let's listen. >> closer to $2 million a minute. it will be about a trillion a year. and when you look at the debt that was accumulated for 17 years or so. president obama doubled the debt from 10 trillion to 20 trillion. and now we're on course to exceed 30 tr in seven years or so. so the really is a our signs that the budget process is broken. and the sense we're always do the short continued resolutions. there's also evidence that we're not being very good stewards of the money. in putting all the spending together in one bill.

at one time. i think the vote tonight is a vote about many things. about whether or not you favor a government accumulating so much debt. reckon that with your conscious when you for complain for years about the trillion dollar annual deficit of president obama. and it really is also a test of conservatism. some of us have maintained we're fiscally conservative. we go home to the states sp say we're holding the line. we're conservative in the minority. that's a good question. are we to be conservative all the time or only in the minority? some will say it's we must govern. and my question about governing is does governing mean abandoning ones principles? does governing mean we'll be senseless and spend and throw money at every problem.

some said this is a great deal because it's bipartisan. but really in some ways it's a bipartisan compromise in the wrong direction. both sides have come together and said we'll spend more money on the sacred cow that each side wants but in reality the person that gets shafted is the taxpayer. on the next generation burdened with the debt. there's some procedural ways we can try to avoid this. we can do the right thing. that hasn't seemed to work decade after decade. the government shut down prevention act. it would say that if the appropriation committee don't do their jb. if stla 12 months to come up with an appropriation bill and the ted lean comes and they haven't done their job. what would happen is the government wouldn't shut down. the government could continue spending money. it would be at 1% less than they had been spending money. you have to have that hammer.

some kind of punishment for not doing your job. the punishment would be slow down the rate of government. 1% cut doesn't sound enormous. if you have a 1% cut annually in the budget you balance your budget in five years. so 1% cut would be dramatic in the right direction. the 1% would be an incentive to do their job. to process the appropriation bill and have them come out. even if we only did six out of the 12 appropriation bills only one-half of the government one cut down. every bill brought to committee and brought to the floor is one step in the right direction. and less likely we would have a complete shut down. so i think that drawing attention to how much death we're accumulating is something that's important chl some say this was a mistake to have the debate today. this debate could have been

shortened and could have been finished by noon today. had we been granted 15 minutes to have one amendment. part of the process. >> there's senator ran paul on the senate floor. they'll vote at in just about five minutes. on the budget. but he also was on the floor earlier. for a couple hours. talking about why he wasn't going fo support the particular piece of legislation. possibly legislation. i want to bring in david road. back with me. you have to respect him for standing up for conservative principles. i don't know if he's always consistent. he has a point. >> he does. he's not going to get him elected president. this isn't popular with the colleagues in the republican party. this is part of trumps appeal. saying blunt things, taking risk. there's an authenticity that will appeal to people. it's he gets credit for that. >> is he winning anyone over?

will anyone vote? not vote for this. >> no. this will pass. and he'll be isolated on it. in the public he is. we talked about it earlier. again outside of washington, outside of new york, it's all noise and dysfunction. people don't understand they blame both parties. they don't blame one or the other. >> this has to go to the house. we'll keep you covered here on cnn. and stay tuned. that's it for us. we're expecting a vote in the senate in a few minutes. stay tuned for the latest. that are developing powerful batteries that make everything from cell phones to rail cars more efficient. which helps improve every aspect of advanced rail technology. all with support from a highly-educated workforce and vocational job training. across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov.

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hello. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. live in los angeles. 10:00 thursday night. >> live in atlanta. 1:00 a.m. here on the u.s. east coast. here we are. moving into the second hour of the u.s. government shut down. keep in mind this is the second time that this happened during the trump administration. live