Tom Delay spoke with CNN’s Chris Cuomo Friday morning about the possible upcoming government shutdown.
Citing his previous experience with government shutdown in the 1990s with Newt Gingrich, Cuomo asked Delay to share his insight: "This notion that it hurts the Republicans is totally wrong, because in 1995, we won. We won the budget cuts, we won it. We showed Bill Clinton that we'd take him off a cliff and got welfare reform, a balanced budget, and we won seats in the next election. I don't know where they come up with this notion that a shutdown hurts Republicans" Delay responded. Cuomo pressed Delay further "Newt [Gingrich] (then Speaker of the House) took a beating in popularity, the president's numbers soared at the time…" and asked what Delay what advice he would give lawmakers in Washington. Delay said "Hold firm, stick to your guns, and you’ll ultimately win." Cuomo asked Delay if a shutdown was worth it, even if the credit of the United States is destroyed, to which Delay confidently countered "It won’t."
While a shutdown is not optimal for the United States, as Delay said in his interview, polling shows that the blame will not be solely placed on Republicans. A recent poll conducted by Pew showed that the public is likely to blame both sides. In their poll, Pew found that just as many people said they would blame the Republican party as people who would blame Obama, with 17% saying that they would place equal blame on both.