John Cooney was quoted on January 19, 2018, in an article about the recent government shutdown in which he said that the looming specter of a political impasse and resulting shutdown has both parties walking on eggshells for the same reason.
"That is, neither party can estimate with any degree of assurance whom the public will blame if they deadlock on the core function of an elected official—to provide the funds necessary to run the government," he said.
In his remarks to the reporter comparing this government shutdown from past government shutdowns, Cooney said, "This is a fundamentally different impasse than the U.S. political system has confronted previously, because all past shutdown scenarios involved a political deadlock between the president and Congress as an institution."