Transcript for Shutdown stalemate with no end in sight

Speaking of border security, that is the main issue of contention as the U.S. Government shutdown enters its second week this morning with the lives and paychecks of some 800,000 federal workers hanging in the balance. It is day eight of the funding showdown and no end in sight. ABC's white house correspondent Tara Palmeri is at the white house with the latest on negotiations and what it all means for those families affected. Good morning, Tara. Reporter: Good morning, Eva. President trump is spending new year's here in Washington instead of his beach resort but the negotiations have broken down. Neither side is even talking to each other at this point and the president's chief of staff said they're in it for the long haul. It's day eight of the government shutdown and neither side is willing to budge. Negotiations to re-open the government at a standstill with no end in sight before the new year. Discussions have broken down. We do expect this to go on for awhile. Reporter: The deadlock over the president's demand for a border wall. Democrats refusing to pass a bill that includes funding for one of his main campaign promises. I guarantee you, folks, that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Reporter: And the president now raising the stakes tweeting, quote, we will be forced to close the southern border entirely if the obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the wall. Incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi saying the house's first vote as the majority on January 3rd will be to re-open the government. The president's chief of staff Mick Mulvaney explaining how last week's negotiations went awry. Saturday amp we sat down with Mr. Schumer and gave him a number below five and last night they called us and said they wouldn't even counter that. Reporter: Experts believe that closing off the border could result in billions of dollars to the U.S. Economy depending on the duration, the political showdown pinching 800,000 federal workers over the holidays, some working without pay and others furloughed. Several national parks are not being staffed and smithsonian museums will close their doors on January 2nd. The coast guard's 42,000 members receiving word Friday they will receive their final paychecks on Monday and homeland security secretary kirstjen Nielsen is in El Paso, Texas. Last night she visited detention centers in the border cities. Two children have died in U.S. Custody this month. Today Nielsen will head to yuma, Arizona, where she'll meet with medical technicians and local officials, but, guys, all of those meetings are closed to the press. Dan. Tara Palmeri at the white house, thank you. Let's go to Texas and bring in our chief political analyst, Matthew dowd. Matthew, good morning. Let's start with the president threatening to shut down the entire southern border. Do you see that as a real threat or a negotiating tactic or maybe a message to his base? What do you think is going on with that? Well, I don't think it's a real threat. First of all, many treaties -- this would be a violation of many treaties for him to do something like that. It would be a violation of the new nafta agreement that he signed and it would actually be a violation of much of the law the United States about restricting legal immigration that is in the books, so I don't think it's a realistic threat. The other part of the threat is it actually wouldn't hurt Mexico as much as it would hurt the United States because of the economy that we share and what we benefit from that and I think the main part is it's a signal to his base saying I'm standing tall. I'm standing firm. I'm going to do whatever it takes but it's not realistic he would shut the border down. This horrible murder of the police officer in California, we've all seen the picture of him posing with his wife and 5-month-old child hours before he was shot, the president has been pointing to this case as he argues for his border wall. Is that not potentially a powerful line of argument politically? It's incredibly powerful. Obviously this is horribly tragic, as you mentioned, and what happened to his family and what happened to this man and everybody involved in this. I don't think, though, appealing to people's fears in these ways, in these anecdotal ways has actually benefited Donald Trump. He tried this in the midterm elections with various points in time running on the wall, doing all that and he lost the midterms badly and so in the short term I think it's incredibly emotional, incredibly tragic and it's incredibly powerful but making long-term public policy, I don't think it's helpful in that regard. Back to the shutdown for a second. No matter who quote/unquote wins here, is it possible that the president is playing a smart long game in terms of portraying the Democrats as soft on border security, a point that he's just hammering and hammering and hammering? Well, we know in the short term right now it's not benefiting the president. Most Americans blame the shutdown on the president. And I think when you look back at 1995 and 1996, when that started, they blamed the Republicans and it never got better for the Republicans, so I think in the long term it doesn't benefit the president. What I think happens if this goes on and we could see a record shutdown. I think the last record was 21 days long of a shutdown. Had we could pass that record and I think it's going to be a pox on everybody. At some point the public will say come on, show some leadership, Republicans and Democrats, but for now it hurts the president and he has actually claimed credit for the shutdown so in the end I think this isn't beneficial for the president and it's definitely not beneficial for the American public. We've got a new house speaker coming in next week. We'll see if that moves the ball forward in any meaningful way. Matthew dowd from Texas this morning, we appreciate it. Thank you.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.