CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: ACA and Government Shutdown

Interview

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COSTELLO: Closed for business and on Capitol Hill, the finger pointing continues. The senate rejecting a House request for a formal meeting to work out their differences on government spending and Obamacare. The Senate is also voting down a House proposal to end the government's shutdown. Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, he joins me now. Good morning, Senator.

SENATOR JOHNNY ISAKSON (R), GEORGIA: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So let's get right down to it and talk about the people who are most affected because of the shutdown. More than 800,000 federal workers are going to be furloughed. They're not getting paid. What do you say to them this morning?

ISAKSON: We need to get our job done in the House and the Senate and at the White House. You got a situation right now where you have the irresistible force in the House Republicans, the unmovable object with the president with a veto pen and Harry Reid with the majority in the Senate, something's got to give. We don't need a protracted shutdown.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure if I'm sitting around and not collecting a paycheck and wondering when I'm going to get back to work, those words will not be of great comfort to me.

ISAKSON: The best I can say right now, Carol, is this, historically, in this country, of all the shutdowns we have had, the shortest was one day, the longest was 21 days, this one will fall somewhere probably in between.

COSTELLO: So that's your prediction, about 10, 12 days?

ISAKSON: History is usually a pretty good teacher so something between 1 and 21.

COSTELLO: OK. So the same federal workers and actually a lot of other Americans are pretty angry that much of Congress is going to be paid and these federal workers are not. Why not --

ISAKSON: I don't blame them for that. There is a reason the constitution says Congress gets paid, that's because that's a provision to keep it working while everybody else isn't. I completely side with the American worker and the American government worker, who have mortgages to pay, college loans to pay back, food to put on the table. We need to get our job done in Washington, fight for what we believe in and fight hard, but not protract the shutdown.

COSTELLO: Will you forgo your paycheck?

ISAKSON: I've done that before. I forego it when we get raises during midterms. That's not the issue. The issue is getting the government back so everybody is getting a paycheck.

COSTELLO: Congressman Peter King, a Republican from New York said he did his best to beat the Ted Cruz Republicans and he failed. And he had this to say to CNN's Dana Bash. Listen.

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REPRESENTATIVE PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: There's no doubt that the Ted Cruz wing of the party is the one who is right now controlling the strategy. They have been doing it for the last two weeks. People in the conference, I believe, were just as happy to have the government shutdown. They live in narrow echo chambers where they listen to themselves and their Tea Party friends and that keeps them going forgetting the rest of the country thinks we're crazy.

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COSTELLO: Is Ted Cruz and the Tea Party controlling what is happening today?

ISAKSON: The last thing I'm going to do is pick a fight within my own party. It is time my party came together. We need a victory. We need to work together no matter what state we represent, no matter what our name might be, or what our propensity might be. It is time we unified as a Republican Party and fought the good fight for our states and the people we represent.

COSTELLO: But don't you have to work with the Democrats too?

ISAKSON: Absolutely you do. But you got to have your team together first, or else you're in total disarray.

COSTELLO: You know, I just think people are so frustrated because they keep hearing the same things from both sides of the aisle, not just the Republicans, but the Democrats too. And there seems to be no middle ground and yet here we all sit, the economy could be affected adversely. We have the debt ceiling fight coming up. People have lost trust in government and they're really angry and frustrated. They think you're all pathetic, if I may be blunt.

ISAKSON: I don't think that's blunt at all. I think that's practically true. There are a lot of fights up here worth fighting. The Obamacare fight is worth fighting. The debt ceiling issue that is coming up is worth fighting --

COSTELLO: Is Obamacare worth fighting at this particular time? Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said please do not shut down the government because it could adversely affect the economy. It could affect, you know, those employers who are thinking about hiring because Washington can't come up with one economic plan that everybody can agree on.

ISAKSON: I didn't mention shutting up the government or shutting down the government. I mentioned the Obamacare issue, which is an issue and the debt ceiling is an issue. Sometimes these issues get leveraged to come to a solution. It is not pretty, but it is the American political system.

COSTELLO: It is not pretty, but it is affecting a whole lot of people, 800,000 federal workers who are not getting paid right at the moment, and, you know, I just talked to the CEO of Target who says I don't know what's going on in Washington. I can't make decisions on hiring people, because there is no clear economic plan and nobody can come to any sort of agreement.

ISAKSON: And uncertainty breeds instability in the markets, which slows down what has been a very protracted recovery anyway. And, Carol, I've got three children and nine grandchildren. They're being affected right now. This is not something I'm talking about that I don't understand. This is something I understand.

COSTELLO: Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, thanks so much for joining me.

ISAKSON: Thanks, Carol.

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