CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: ACA and Government Shutdown

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Steve Israel of New York is here with me.

You have been in meetings with Nancy Pelosi, who is going to attend the meeting at the White House. Are expectations even remotely high that anything can get accomplished?

REP. STEVE ISRAEL (D), NEW YORK: Well, I think everybody in that room in the White House knows what everybody else knows, that the votes are there right now on floor of the House to pass a budget, reopen government, at the level the Republicans want, the lower level, without defunding Obamacare.

BASH: But that has been on the table, that's been the state of reality for a long time. And Republicans won't budge. Is the president prepared to give him something, to negotiate on anything to try to end this stalemate?

ISRAEL: Well, the president is going to say to Speaker Boehner, what is it going to take to open up this government? Speaker Boehner then has a choice. He can continue to pander to his -- the Tea Party elements in his caucus and say, you're not going to get anything, it's our way or the highway, or Speaker Boehner can start presenting an exit strategy that makes sense.

We want to reopen the government. We have a way of doing it. We can do it within the next few minutes. It's not about 10, 20, 30, 40 Republicans. It's about one. Will Speaker Boehner release the 16 Republicans who already said they will vote with us to take this vote and reopen the government?

BASH: Now, as we speak, you and your fellow colleagues are beginning a series of votes on the House floor to fund five parts of the government, veterans, the National Park Service, and also among those is the NIH, which of course, funds research, cancer research for everybody, including children.

You -- Democrats are in a tough spot, right? That's the whole point. That's the Republican strategy, to put you in a tough spot.

ISRAEL: That is the Republican strategy, to put us in a tough spot, but what they're doing is they're putting America in a tough spot. They're saying to the American people, we only want to fund certain things. We're going to decide what gets funded and what doesn't.

This is a democracy. The American people want us to fund government, keep it open, and then negotiate the levels of funding.

BASH: Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was saying you can't pick and choose one over the other, but Congress, both houses, just earlier this week passed a bill to keep the salaries going for men and women of the military. You have already picked and chosen. So why not at least if this is on the table, if it's in front of you as an option, vote to fund the NIH so that at least these trials can keep going while other parts of the government are closed?

ISRAEL: Because this is not a restaurant menu. This is government. And when we did support continued funding for our troops, that was before the government shut down.

I don't believe that anybody really believed that John Boehner would dig in to the extent that he did and double down and keep this government shut down for as long as it has been shut down. There was a hope that he would come to the table and negotiate a compromise. That hope has evaporated. But, still, Dana, I think we can get this. In fact, I know it. There are 225 votes ready to go right now to fund a clean budget, no defunding of Obamacare, at the low level that the Republicans want.

Our message to Speaker Boehner is take yes for an answer.

BASH: OK. Thank you, Congressman Steve Israel.

And we will see what happens, Brooke, at the White House, but with all due respect, what Congressman Israel is saying is what the White House has been saying and what John Boehner and his Republican leadership so far has said. That's not a negotiating position from their perspective.

BALDWIN: Right. Dana Bash, thank you.

Congressman Israel, thanks. Thank you.

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