The main topic of concern this week, for the practical-minded at least, is this.

Does the American air traffic control system still work?

And if it isn't working, who's to blame?

We'll talk about the government shutdown, now the longest in history.

And we'll talk about some other bad signs for the president's political standing tonight with Leanne Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck.

David Ignatius is a foreign affairs columnist at the Washington Post.

Mark Leovich is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

And Jeff Zelony is the chief national affairs correspondent for CNN.

Chief, be careful the way you address him.

Uh, thank you all for being here.

Leanne, let me start with you.

So, America, our country is the world's sole remaining superpower.

It can project force into any corner of the world.

It has the world's largest economy, but we can't seem to get people to work in the air traffic control system.

So, the flights are being cancelled um left and right.

I guess this is because the government doesn't work.

But what I need to know from you is who to blame?

Who do we blame to blame?

Well, that's a good question.

Um, if you ask the Democrats, it's the Republicans.

I'm asking you.

I'm asking you.

If you ask the Republicans, it's the Democrat's fault.

So, um, I'm not going to put any blame except for all of them are to blame because uh, the Democrats are absolutely right.

Republicans control the three branches of government.

They need at least seven Democrats in order to get votes to fund the government.

But the Republicans have not until now negotiated with Democrats to find those votes.

The Democrats are bringing in a completely unrelated issue, this issue of healthc care because they have no leverage at any other time in this government because they have a president who will only work with Republicans.

And so they are using this to try to make a point and to get Republicans to the table to negotiate on an issue that is important to them and that's these affordable care act subsidies.

So now we're 38 days into a government shutdown.

Um it is really starting to hit the American public.

people are starting to feel it and uh you know probably most impactfully are the people who can't afford food who are in food stamps the SNAP program and the administration tonight is trying to appeal a court order to pay those benefits out now that doesn't make the government look so great that doesn't make the Trump administration look so great Jeeoff I mean who is forget the uh the the the reality of that from an optics perspective, who is in the most danger here?

Who's in the most political danger?

The snap issue seems more dire for obvious reasons than the air traffic control system, although that is a sign of dysfunction.

I mean, particularly going into we're three weeks before Thanksgiving, we're kind of like focused on uh right as we're going into the holidays and the idea that the administration has chosen to not find money to fund the food assistance program for some 42 million Americans, one and aid Americans, but they have found money uh for military payments and ICE officers and others.

That's a choice.

It's a choice by the administration, but it is beginning to catch up with the administration and Republicans.

You heard the president say it him um himself this week when he blamed the election fallout on the shutdown and he uh had an a previously scheduled lunch with Republicans on Wednesday morning, the morning after the election and he was very angry and he's angry about the shutdown.

Uh but he's not really doing anything to um sort of bring it to an end.

But look, I think this week felt to me like a turning point.

Who knows how long it will go, but the president was angry today talking about um you know how Americans just aren't seeing all what he's doing.

I brought down costs.

He hasn't.

And that's what he promised to do one year ago.

So to me at least, this week seemed somewhat different.

We'll see if it sort of brings an end to the shutdown.

The Senate is staying in this weekend, which is something they've not done for any of the other what five weekends, four or five weekends.

So I think by next week there'll be movement.

Sure.

tough work.

The uh I just realized that the way you phrased it uh what what we're right now in the season of people in large numbers flying home to eat vast quantities of food.

Um and it's it's interesting that that SNAP is directly affecting people's ability to eat and this this fly home and fly home.

I mean, that's that doesn't make the people in charge look um very good.

I mean, Mark, do you expect them to actually come to uh come to a conclusion soon on this now that the president seems to be seized by the idea that this is not good for him?

I mean, not necessarily.

I mean, one, Democrats seem to be much more dug in than they were before Tuesday.

I mean, I think they seem emboldened by Tuesday's elections, which Democrats did very well in.

Also, I mean, Trump might be angry and frustrated, and he might be telling Republicans this, but it's not like he's coming to this from a place of humility.

Maybe we should back off on A, B, or C. He no, he's doubling down.

He's saying, "No, let's kill the filibuster," which is a complete non-starter.

So, it seems like wasted energy at this point and also something that's counterproductive within, you know, within the Republican party.

David, you've watched Washington for quite a while.

There probably been other other periods of kind of dumb dysfunction.

This one has to rank pretty high.

This is the breakdown of our government.

this shutdown stretching toward two months heading toward Thanksgiving when everybody wants to fly home.

Our air traffic system is is, you know, having to slow down, you want to say, is on the verge of of of of beginning to to to break.

Uh, and I worry that the Democrats effort, as Leanne said, to try to make a point.

Um the the point that they're trying to make is is through causing pain for the people by you know holding fast and you know showing that Trump is a is a you know refusing to make concessions on healthcare.

I just worry that that strategy is about to crack up if the Democrats could could uh take the win that they had this week.

You know, this is a week Democrats just rolled in the Tuesday elections and this is a moment when they as a party that's confident, I think, could find a path towards a compromise that would make them look good and and make the country feel like where they simply come out and say, "We want everybody to eat and fly around and they're they're the party that's going to solve this problem."

I I can easily see, as I say, a way to take a win, and they don't seem to want to do that,