I mean, is this what your takeaway is?

Well, not exactly, but I don't know.

I guess I'll be the contrary on this.

I think that the Democratic senators handled this basically pretty well.

You're playing chicken with the other, the other, it's like you're playing chicken and the other party wants to crash.

Like, you're never going to win a game of chicken against Donald Trump.

So why didn't get into this? Hold on. They spent 40 days doing this. And I was talking to Senator

Kane a moment ago. And he basically laid out everything that they could have gotten. If they

never went into a shutdown, he was worried about SNAP benefits running out. Well, if they never

went into a shutdown, SNAP benefits would not have run out. He was worried about SNAP benefits running out. Well, if they never went into a shutdown, snap benefits would not have run out. He was worried about federal workers getting laid off. Well, if they didn't go into a shutdown, they weren't going to get laid off. And so they spent 40 days saying this is all about health care, all about the ACA and these subsidies. This is the only point we're going to have any leverage on this.

And then now they're like, well, we're going to have a separate vote. And the American public will get to see where Republicans stand. And by the way, it sounds like the House isn't even

going to take it up. I hear all that, Katie, but that was the best case scenario from the start.

I mean, and they had no choice to do nothing.

And here's the reality.

If they wanted to get the health care subsidy extended,

they needed to win the election last November.

The Republicans control all of Washington.

Like this expectation that the Republicans were going to wake up one morning

and say, you know what, we're going to do the emergency Obamacare extension.

You know, we're going to make sure that the subsidies for people that are early retirees are going to continue.

It's crazy to think that the Republicans were never going to do that.

And the purpose of the shutdown to my mind was to demonstrate to the voters as Democrats what their side was on this issue and what

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