Posted on 04/24/2017 9:20:56 PM PDT by Angels27
The White House sought Monday to calm a jittery Washington ahead of a showdown with Congress over spending, and President Trump softened his demand that a deal to keep the federal government open include money to begin construction on his long-promised border wall. Despite one-party control at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the brinkmanship that came to define spending battles in the Obama years has tumbled into the Trump era, as have the factional divisions over strategy and priorities that have gripped the GOP for a decade. But with a Friday deadline looming to pass a new spending bill, the Trump administration projected confidence that a shutdown would be avoided. In the face of fierce Democratic opposition to funding the wall’s construction, White House officials signaled Monday that the president may be open to an agreement that includes money for border security if not specifically for a wall, with an emphasis on technology and border agents rather than a structure. Trump showed even more flexibility Monday afternoon, telling conservative journalists in a private meeting that he was open to delaying funding for wall construction until September, a White House official confirmed. “The president is working hard to keep the government open,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Monday. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he was “very confident” that an agreement would be reached by Friday, but he pointedly said he could not “guarantee” that a government closure would be averted.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Disagree, the final design has not been selected. There are some VERY Good proposals.
Why not use the Wall as a negotiating lever until you are ready to break ground and collect monies from Mexico to cover the cost?
Hell no.
The judicial system is so full of RATs they need to call Terminix.
SKA-REW "jittery Washington"!
I want them jittering in the unemployment line, crying over their lost pensions.
How will he do that? Usually presidents lose leverage the further they get into their terms.
There’s a difference between “caving on the wall” and “not including it in the Continuing Resolution.”
The wall, or something very like it, can and will be funded and built, but maybe not this week in the CR.
They got rid of the filibuster for SCOTUS, why can’t they get rid of it for the budget? At least change the rule so they have to actually DO the filibuster, not just threaten it.
I wondered the same thing. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul did filibuster over funding obamacare, shut down the government, and were blamed for it. Now the shoes are on the other foot, but I think the republican weasels are afraid they will still get blamed even though the democrats would be the ones filibustering. Also, I think Trump just wants to get tax cuts and healthcare through, and this budget is just until September, so he could just use money for general border security for what little wall building would be done by then.
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