So much for a deal.
President Trump’s new proposal for avoiding a government shutdown turned out to be a demand for a $1 billion “slush fund” for immigration enforcement rather than a request for wall funding, congressional Democrats said Tuesday afternoon. They rejected that out of hand.
“We cannot accept the offer they made of a billion-dollar slush fund for the President to implement his very wrong immigration policies,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters as she exited a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Pelosi said the White House “has backed off the wall, that terminology, but what they’d want to do with that $1 billion is problematic.”
The offer was made by the White House through Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Pelosi said.
That came after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Trump was willing to back off his demand for $5 billion for a border wall in any deal that funds the government, which is set to partly run out of funding as of Friday.
Democrats have held firm that there won’t be any Mexican border wall funding in any agreement. Trump, who declared that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government over a border wall fight, has backed himself and congressional Republicans into a corner with his position — and it appears that unless he capitulates further, he’ll trigger a partial government shutdown.
Well, well, well. Master negotiator indeed.
That said, I still don’t trust Schumer to not sell us out in the end, but so far I’m liking the invigorated stance.
And this, Donnie, is what hardball looks like.
NANCY SMASH!!!
And she doesn’t even wield the gavel yet.
Her offer is this: Nothing.
One of these days, people are going to get that, unlike the Speaker or House Majority Leader, a Democratic SMJ is only a “leader” in the sense that a Commissioner of Baseball “leads”the cranky eccentric owners who jealously guard their power and perks. He is, at best, first among equals and at worst a hatchet man and whipping boy for others.
When was the last time you heard of there being any daylight between a SMJ and a Democratic Senator? When have you ever heard of any criticism of his acts, whether from Manchin or Tester or from Bernie or Warren?