Trump's shutdown solution hangs in limbo

  The Associated Press         JILL COLVIN      AND
 LISA MASCARO             Jan 21st 2019
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's proposal to break through the budget deadlock appeared to be gaining little traction Monday, as another missed paycheck loomed for hundreds of thousands of workers and the partial federal shutdown stretched into its fifth week.

Despite the fanfare of the president's announcement, voting in Congress was not expected to unfold until later in the week. Even then it seemed doubtful that legislation based on Trump's plan had any chance of swiftly passing the Senate. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority but would need Democrats to reach the usual 60-vote threshold for bills to advance.

Not a single Democrat publicly expressed support for the deal in the 48 hours since Trump announced it. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer's office reiterated Monday they that are unwilling to negotiate any border security funding until Trump re-opens the government.

"Nothing has changed with the latest Republican offer," said Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman. "President Trump and Senate Republicans are still saying: 'Support my plan or the government stays shut.' That isn't a compromise or a negotiation — it's simply more hostage taking."

While the House and Senate are scheduled to be back in session Tuesday, no votes have been scheduled so far on Trump's plan. And senators, who will be given 24-hour notice ahead of voting, have yet to be recalled to Washington.

McConnell spokesman David Popp said Monday that the GOP leader "will move" to voting on consideration of the president's proposal "this week."

Trump, who on Sunday lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, accusing her of acting "irrationally," continued to single her out on Twitter.

"If Nancy Pelosi thinks that Walls are "immoral," why isn't she requesting that we take down all of the existing Walls between the U.S. and Mexico," he wrote Monday. "Let millions of unchecked "strangers" just flow into the U.S."

House Democrats this week are pushing ahead with voting on their own legislation to re-open the government and add $1 billion for border security —including 75 more immigration judges and infrastructure improvements — but no funding for the wall.

Trump later tweeted: "Democrats are kidding themselves (they don't really believe it!) if they say you can stop Crime, Drugs, Human Trafficking and Caravans without a Wall or Steel Barrier. Stop playing games and give America the Security it deserves. A Humanitarian Crisis!"

Meanwhile, the impact of the shutdown — the longest ever — continued to ripple across the nation as it stretched into its 31st day.

The Transportation Security Administration said the percentage of its airport screeners missing work hit 10 percent on Sunday — up from 3.1 percent on the comparable Sunday a year ago.

The screeners, who have been working without pay, have been citing financial hardship as the reason they can't report to work. Even so, the agency said that it screened 1.78 million passengers Sunday with only 6.9 percent having to wait 15 minutes or longer to get through security.

The shutdown had also threatened to disrupt plans for an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day service at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the civil rights leader was co-pastor with his father from 1960 until his assassination in 1968. The site is run by the National Park Service and had been closed. But a grant from Delta Air Lines is keeping the church and associated sites, including the home where King was born, open through Feb. 3.

Trump on Saturday offered to extend temporary protections for young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children and those fleeing disaster zones for three years in exchange for $5.7 billion for his border wall. Democrats said the proposal for a three-year extension didn't go nearly far enough, and that Trump was using as leverage programs that he had targeted. Meanwhile, some on the right, including conservative commentator Ann Coulter, accused Trump of offering "amnesty."

"No, Amnesty is not a part of my offer," Trump tweeted Sunday, in response. He noted that he'd offered temporary protections for the immigrants in question, but added: "Amnesty will be used only on a much bigger deal, whether on immigration or something else."

That statement led some to suggest that Trump might be open to including a potential pathway to citizenship for the young "Dreamer" immigrants in a future proposal to end the standoff.

Asked in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" whether Trump's Saturday proposal represented a "final offer," Vice President Mike Pence said the White House was willing to negotiate.

"Well, of course," Pence said. "The legislative process is a negotiation."
Stay tune   " AS the Stomach Turns"
                                          Witchy  sez :
Trump's proposal is not rational.  It is ego driven.  He does not have the well being of Federal workers in mind.  He just does not want to be perceived as a "loser", despite the fact that he is.  He needs to concede and open the government, then work out the border issues.  Sadly, he (like most politicians) can not be trusted.   If he did he wouldn't hire worker visa only at his golf course/country clubs for the uber rich. And he would have paid his employees and contractors at all of those casinos he bankrupted more than .30 cents on the dollar, if he paid them at all!  The reddest states Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Maine have exceptionally high poverty rates, and receive a disproportionately large share of federal dollars
Just so we are clear, the majority of "we the people" do not want "the wall" that your man crush promised us all  that Mexico would pay for, not "we the people!"    it should be rejected.  the government of the United States of America should never be a bargaining chip, for either political or pathological purposes.  open it back up, and keep it open, never to be closed again. and then negotiate for real.  Trump  is a v!le, tra!torous, lowl!fe lout that is destroying our democracy as a few sp!neless GoP Congressmen hide their heads in the sand as his disease !nfects our country.  Then there are the 35% that     k!ss his feet, blindly and without a clue to reality.    What the heck happened to the 13th Amendment? You know, the one that says, no involuntary servitude. Meaning how can people be ordered to work without getting paid?
Furthermore, some of these federal workers, working or not, are beginning to lose health care benefits as a result of no payment of premiums ordinarily taken from their paychecks.
Please Colter, Insanity and Limbo order   Trump  to end HIS mess!  A caring president would never use government employees as pawns. He is clueless to their plight and it is heartbreaking to see government WORKERS standing in line for food.   
This is all just smoke and mirrors to keep our eyes off the real story: Russia. And it is working. Trump just got sanctions lifted off oligarch Deripaska, MUCH to Putin's happiness.
NUFF  SAID                         HeHe