Govt shutdown spoils trump party
Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or safety at our dangerous Southern border...They could have easily made a deal but decided to play shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in ord
washington — US President Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of his inauguration on Saturday with his government in shutdown, lashing out at Democrats over the collapse of budget negotiations as lawmakers seek to thrash out a deal.
When the clock struck midnight, federal services began to halt or be scaled back in the absence of an agreed spending plan.
Essential services and military activity will continue, but hundreds of thousands of public sector workers will be sent home without wages and even serving soldiers will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.
“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present,” Trump, who is in Washington instead of celebrating the anniversary at his Mar-a-Lago resort, wrote on Twitter early Saturday.
“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” he tweeted.
“They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!” —
President Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of his inauguration on Saturday with his government in shutdown, accusing Democrats of taking Americans hostage with their demands.
From midnight Friday, in the absence of an agreed spending plan, federal services began to come to a halt or be scaled back, even as lawmakers continued to argue on the floor of the Senate.
Essential services and military activity will continue but many public sector workers will be sent home without wages and even serving soldiers will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.
During a stopover in Shannon Airport in Ireland ahead of a threecountry tour of the Middle East, Vice-President Mike Pence met US troops in transit to overseas assignments and said they had brought up the shutdown.
“You have troops headed down range to Kuwait for six months and they are anxious about the fact that they aren’t going to get paid right away,” he told reporters. “It’s unconscionable.”
A deal had appeared likely earlier on Friday, when Trump seemed to be close to an agreement with Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on a measure to prevent the expulsion of undocumented migrants who arrived in the country as children.
But no such compromise was in the language that reached Congress for a stop-gap motion to keep the government open for four more weeks while a final arrangement is discussed — and Republicans failed to win enough Democratic support to bring it to a vote.
The White House lashed out at Schumer, blaming him for the shutdown and doubling down: Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declared that he would never negotiate an immigration deal until Congress agrees to resume normal government spending.
“Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown,” she declared.
“Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans. “We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” she said.
Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell echoed the White House’s language, but Schumer fought back, blaming Trump for leading him to believe a deal was possible on the immigration dispute but then failing to bring his own party along.
“Every American knows the Republican Party controls White House, the Senate, the House — it is their job to keep the government open. It is their job to work with us to move forward,” Schumer told the Senate, after the 50 to 49 vote. “They control every ounce of the process and it is their responsibility to govern and here they have failed,” he declared.
Schumer added he had also offered to discuss the possibility of building a wall along the border with Mexico, a key campaign pledge made by Trump that is anathema to many Democrats.
“Even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal,” he said.
Democrats accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump’s populist base by refusing to fund a programme that protects 700,000 “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children — from deportation.
The president shelved plans to fly to Florida to celebrate at his Mar-a-Lago estate the first anniversary of his inauguration. —