Jim Himes on the government shutdown: "The American people don't want this country to be managed from crisis to crisis"

With the United States firmly entrenched in a third week with the government shutdown, on Tuesday evening Piers Morgan asked a pair of politicians, each representing alternate sides of the aisle, to share their party and personal perspectives.

Speaking specifically to Marsha Blackburn, the "Piers Morgan Live" host asked about her associate from Texas:

"At what point does the outright selfish, self-interest of Ted Cruz and his colleagues, outweigh the American interest in the global economic interest?"

Despite Morgan's interjections, Blackburn offered the following thought:

"There again, I think that what we don't do is talk about personalities ... what we have to do is say 'how do we deal with the debt ceiling, and the debt,'" she began. "We didn't want a government shutdown. We don't want to have a default on the debt ... what House Republicans have done is, we have passed four different continuing resolutions, and a budget."

Poking just a bit of fun, Morgan quipped:

"I know, you've been unbelievably responsible which is why the government's been shutdown for two weeks."

Standing directly to Blackburn's right, Jim Himes detailed the impact of the shutdown as he sees it thus far:

"What has happened in the last 15 days, it has been devastating for our economy, throwing people out of work. The economists will tell you that the kind of management by crisis that the Republican Party and the House has demanded for years now, has probably cost the economy a million jobs," said the Democratic U.S. Representative from Connecticut. "Forget about the jobs and everything else out there that is hurting the American people, it's devastated the Republicans political fortunes. Seventy-four percent of Americans disagree with how the Republicans have handled this ... the American people don't want this country to be managed from crisis to crisis."

Watch the clip for more of Morgan's conversation with Himes and Blackburn, and for the next edition of "Piers Morgan Live," watch CNN every night at 9.
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