It’s hard to imagine that Donald Trump would put the country through another shutdown given the political fallout from his previous unforced error, but then this guy is a special kind of stupid.
If no agreement is reached on the border wall by Friday’s deadline, it seems likely that he’ll declare a state of emergency and wait for the courts to swat it down like the grizzly mauling Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, but we could also have another disastrous shutdown, despite the glaring lack of appetite for any repeat of that horrorshow.
From The Washington Post:
“I think the talks are stalled right now,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the lead Republican negotiator, said on Fox News Sunday. “I’m not confident we’re going to get there.”
Lawmakers had been trading offers, trying to finalize how much money could go to barriers along the border as President Trump demands money for his wall. Trump has called for $5.7 billion, but lawmakers were trying to find a number between $1.3 billion and $2 billion that would be acceptable to both sides.
One of the sticking points involves the number of detention beds available to ICE. Democrats want to cap the number to put a limit on the agency’s activities. On Meet the Press this morning, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney addressed the impasse:
“It’s all over the map, and I think it’s all over the map because of the Democrats,” White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on “Meet the Press,” regarding the status of talks. “The president really does believe that there is a national security crisis and a humanitarian crisis at the border and he will do something about it.”
Well, no. It’s all over the map because the pr*sident never studied geography, politics, or really anything besides the leprechaun maze on the back of his Lucky Charms box. There’s no national security crisis, and anyone with even a shred of understanding knows this.
But once again the government could be held hostage by one of the most malodorous presidential brain farts in American history.
And this time the stench could be overwhelming.
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