President could be stepping back on wall demands

washington» President Donald Trump appears to be stepping back from demanding a down payment for his border wall, which could remove a major obstacle to a bipartisan deal on must-pass spending legislation just days ahead of a government shutdown deadline.

Trump told a gathering of around 20 conservative media reporters Monday evening that he would be willing to return to the funding issue in September.

The border wall money is

fiercely opposed by Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass the legislation. They are equally incensed over Trump’s threat to deprive former President Barack Obama’s health care law of key funds to help poor people.

The wall is also unpopular with many Republicans, and GOP negotiators on Capitol Hill were uneasy about the clash over the wall potentially sparking a government shutdown.

Those were the most pressing issues confronting lawmakers as they returned from a two-week spring recess to face a critical deadline. Congress must pass a $1 trillion catch-all spending bill to pay for all agencies of government by midnight Friday or trigger a partial shutdown the next day, which happens to coincide with the 100th day of Trump’s presidency.

The standoff echoed similar spending fights during the Obama administration when Republicans would push to “defund” Obama’s health law over the objections of Democrats. Even though Republicans now control both chambers of Congress and the White House, the dynamics are not all that different. Democrats still have leverage and Republicans fear that as the party in charge, they would shoulder the blame from any shutdown.

“I’m optimistic. I don’t think anybody wants a shutdown,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who said there are just a handful of unresolved issues on the core package of spending bills. “The White House and basically the minority leaders of the House and Senate have to have some level of agreement on the things that you’re adding.”

It’s increasingly obvious that the House and Senate will have to pass a temporary funding extension of a few days or more to prevent a shutdown this weekend and allow more time for talks.

“I do not think the election was a referendum on building a wall to the tune of tens of billions of dollars,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The negotiations over the spending bill took center stage despite a separate White House push for fast action to revive health care legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. After signaling last week that they hoped for a vote as soon as this week on a rewritten health bill, White House officials softened their stance Monday. Echoing the views of House GOP leaders, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said there would be a vote on health care legislation when House leaders count the 216 votes needed to pass it.

Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan were embarrassed last month when they had to pull their “Obamacare” replacement bill off the floor without a vote as it became clear it would fail. Since then leaders of conservative and moderate factions in the House have been negotiating on a compromise allowing states to opt out of certain “Obamacare” requirements, and they appear to be making progress, although legislative text had not been finalized as of Monday.

The original GOP bill eliminated many of the “Obamacare” mandates, offered skimpier subsidies for consumers to buy care and rolled back a Medicaid expansion. Conservatives balked, saying it didn’t go far enough.

With Democrats unanimously opposed it remains to be seen whether the deal will come together and attract the needed support. Trump talked it up on Twitter, writing Monday: “If our health care plan is approved, you will see real health care and premiums will start tumbling down. ObamaCare is in a death spiral!”

Trump also pushed for his border wall, a central campaign pledge that he still insists Mexico will pay for in the end, though Democrats and even most Republicans doubt that will ever come to pass. Cost estimates for the wall range past $20 billion and Republicans were seeking $1.4 billion as a down payment in the spending bill.

But some of the conservative journalists who met Monday evening with Trump reported he said wall funding could wait until the fall.