As the April 28 deadline approaches to keep the government funded, one thing has become glaringly obvious: Republicans can't govern without Democrats holding their hand. That, in turn, means two things: 1) Any government shutdown falls squarely on the GOP, which is currently at the wheel of the entire federal government; 2) Democrats shouldn't allow a penny of taxpayer dollars to be directed toward Donald Trump's border wall.
Here's the lay of the land: The House maniacs will likely deny votes to any funding bill that doesn't defund Planned Parenthood and/or shrink the federal government down to the size of a pea. More clear-eyed Republicans (in the Senate especially) know that's a death wish for them on the immediate funding bill.
Presumably, so does Trump. He's declared war on the Freedom Caucus “if they don’t get on the team.” The problem is, Trump has his own highly unpopular pet project—his $20- to $50-million border wall. The White House originally asked for some $1.5 billion to jumpstart the wall plus another $30 billion in defense spending to be tucked into that initial funding bill. Slightly saner Senate Republicans know that's also a non-starter, writes the Washington Post.
Several Republicans said Wednesday that there is little appetite within their ranks to engage in a protracted showdown over Trump’s call to begin funding a border wall in the near-term spending bill, which Democrats and some conservative Republicans oppose. And they said Trump’s wishes would gravely threaten any deal. [...]
White House aides on Wednesday played down their earlier call for Congress to include the border wall and spending cuts in the near-term spending bill as nothing more than an early-stage negotiation. Aides acknowledged that Congress has control over the spending process; a request for $33 billion in funds for defense and border protection, plus $18 billion in cuts to help offset those funds, was merely “planting flags,” according to one White House official with knowledge of the negotiations.
None of that, however, precludes the possibility of Trump declining to give his blessing to a spending plan if it lacks his requests.
And there's the rub. The Freedom Caucus is predictably maniacal in every legislative battle. If you're counting votes on anything remotely reasonable, you can count them out. But the guy who holds the pen on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue is consistently erratic and building the wall has captured his imagination more than any other single policy initiative. During several speeches and meetings in the last months, Trump's assured attendees that the wall is indeed happening and, even grander, that it's "way ahead of schedule."
Naturally, resident House nativist Steve King doesn't want Trump to give up the fight so easily.
Trump allies in the House said Wednesday that the president should not allow Republican leaders to shape the spending agreement and urged him to make a firm demand that the wall be funded. “Everything to do with a shutdown carries some risk, but we should take the risk because Trump has a mandate to build the wall,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said.
LOL. Yeah, the “mandate” of a flailing popular vote loser who’s wielding rock-bottom approval ratings in support of a project opposed by more than 60 percent of Americans.
Can’t imagine why Republicans are having trouble “moving from an opposition party to a governing party.”