Wall ‘will get built,’ Trump insists

President drops funding demand; spending deal near.

WASHINGTON — Three days before the deadline to avert a government shutdown, congressional leaders were negotiating a spending proposal on Tuesday that would supply no money for President Donald Trump’s promised border wall with Mexico but would increase funding for White House priorities like the military and other types of border security.

Lawmakers in both parties expressed confidence that a deal could be reached before the lights go out, a prediction that seemed safer as Trump backed off his demand that the border wall receive funding in this measure.

“Hopefully we’ll reach an agreement sometime in the next couple of days,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, though he did not rule out a short-term extension to buy lawmakers more time for a final agreement.

Several obstacles remain, most notably the fate of payments to health insurers to lower deductibles and other costs for low-income consumers who buy plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Trump has threatened to withhold the subsidy payments, which are the subject of a lawsuit, as leverage in negotiations with Democrats, whose votes will be needed to pass any spending bill in the Senate.

Democrats have now turned that threat on its head, insisting that the payments — which the administration has quietly continued to make — be guaranteed as part of any deal. “Six million people could lose their health care, which could become unaffordable,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

The House Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, said the payments were something Republicans “need to do for the American people, not as a ‘give’ to Democrats in negotiations.”

Another central point in the negotiations is a dispute over health benefits for retired miners who may lose their coverage, an issue that led to a near shutdown of the government last year. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and other Democrats want those benefits extended, and miners have been a big constituency for Trump. On Tuesday, McConnell said he supported “a permanent fix on miners’ health care.”

“It’s my hope that that will be included in the final package,” he said.

Democrats would also like to see Congress bail out Puerto Rico’s ailing Medicaid program as part of the deal.

One fact suggests that both Republicans and Democrats have gotten much of what they wanted in the spending bill: They have strikingly avoided the sort of inflamed talk that is often a part of fights over budgets.

After a fractious period in the Capitol — cresting this month with Democrats’ filibuster of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and Republicans’ deployment of the so-called nuclear option to confirm him — members seemed modestly hopeful for a reset of sorts.

“This is a good time to stabilize the government,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of the Appropriations Committee. “And then whatever debates we didn’t have in the next three days, we could have in the next three months or three years.”

As lawmakers on Capitol Hill continued negotiations Tuesday, White House and Senate staff members seemed to agree that the border wall had been reduced to something like a metaphor for broad-based border security funding, which is all but certain to end up in a final spending package.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., praised Trump for relenting. “He’s not going to overplay his hand,” Graham said. “Here’s the challenge to the Democrats: Are you going to overplay your hand?”

Schumer — whose caucus is delighting in pointing out areas in which Trump has fallen short of campaign promises as he approaches his 100th day in office — exulted in the wall’s near-term fate. “For weeks, we have been making good progress in negotiating with our Republican colleagues,” Schumer said. “The president’s eleventh-hour demand threatened to upend the progress. We’re pleased he’s backing off.”

Trump took care to avoid the appearance of acquiescence, eager to reinforce his long-term commitment. “Don’t let the fake media tell you that I have changed my position on the WALL,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning. “It will get built and help stop drugs, human trafficking, etc.”