Trump, Dems reach agreement on debt ceiling
President strikes 3-month deal to fund government
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump struck a deal with Democratic congressional leaders Wednesday to increase the debt limit and finance the government until mid-December, undercutting his own Republican allies as he reached across the aisle to resolve a major dispute for the first time since taking office.
The agreement would avert a fiscal showdown later this month without the bloody, partisan battle that many had anticipated by combining a debt ceiling increase and stopgap spending measure with relief aid to Texas and other areas devastated by Hurricane Harvey. But without addressing the fundamental underlying issues, it set up the prospect for an even bigger clash at the end of the year.
Snap decision
In embracing the threemonth deal, Trump accepted a Democratic proposal that had been rejected just hours earlier by Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Trump’s snap decision at a White House meeting caught Republican leaders off-guard and reflected friction between the president and his party. After weeks of criticizing Republican leaders for failing to pass legislation, Trump signaled that he was willing to cross party lines to score some much-desired legislative victories.
As if to reinforce that point, Trump aligned himself with Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leaders, in embracing legislation to authorize younger undocumented immigrants to stay in the country. A day earlier, Trump had rescinded a program enacted by President Barack Obama protecting such immigrants on the grounds that it went beyond a president’s authority but called on Congress to legalize the program.
“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a speech on taxes in North Dakota, without mentioning that Ryan and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, had also attended. Regarding the immigration program, Trump said, “Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I.”
Time of crisis
Republican leaders looked grim but resigned afterward and attributed Trump’s deal to a need for unity after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas and as Hurricane Irma barrels toward Florida.
“Look, the president can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis, and that was the rationale,” McConnell said.
Congressional aides said privately that Republicans went into the meeting at the White House proposing an 18-month deal on government spending and the debt limit, only to run into resistance from the Democrats. They then proposed a six-month deal as a compromise, but Democrats insisted on a threemonth agreement. Trump then surprised the Republicans by agreeing to the Democratic formulation.
The agreement came after the House overwhelmingly approved nearly $8 billion in disaster aid in response to Harvey, taking quick action to help victims of the devastating flooding in Texas.
The disaster aid proved to be an engine strong enough to pull along tricky if short-term solutions to a slew of pressing fiscal matters that faced Congress this month, including raising the statutory debt limit.