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A reasonable solution is passed. Let's open the government for agencies whose funding is not in dispute and continue discussions on Homeland Security budget to see if an agreement can be reached. What objection could Republicans possibly have to this? SMH.
No worries on that. The bill has no chance of passing the Senate so there you go
Putting McConnell in the enviable position of explaining why a bill that passed unanimously on 2018 is suddenly a horrible idea in 2019. Not that Rep voters care about consistency.
Very small.
Today's job numbers made that even less likely - there were far more jobs created in December than anyone expected.
I can't say I agree, if the Social Security checks don't go out on time due to an extended government shut down, Jobs or No jobs created, a lot of pressure will be placed on each states representatives by retirees. I think it's naïve to think Congress can afford to ignore mounting pressure from the people they represent, just to stick with Trump.
The GOP needs to put country before party. This Individual 1 shutdown is baseless.
But two Senate Republicans who are up for reelection in 2020 broke with Trump and party leaders on their shutdown strategy, saying it was time to end the impasse even if Democrats won’t give Trump the more than $5 billion in border funding he is demanding.
The comments from Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Susan Collins (Maine) — the only Senate Republicans running for reelection in states Trump lost — pointed to cracks within the GOP that could grow as the shutdown nears the two-week mark. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reiterated Thursday that the Senate will only take up government spending legislation that Trump supports.
McConnell’s stance prompted angry attacks Thursday from new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats, who insisted they were trying to give Republicans a way out of the standoff by passing two pieces of legislation: one a package of six spending bills that were negotiated on a bipartisan basis in the Senate and would reopen nearly all the federal agencies that have been shuttered since Dec. 22, and the second a stopgap spending bill through Feb. 8 covering only the Department of Homeland Security.
While federal workers go without pay, senior Trump administration officials are poised to get $10,000 raises.
While many federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, hundreds of senior Trump political appointees are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year.
The pay raises for cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries, top administrators and even Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to go into effect beginning Jan. 5 without legislation to stop them, according to documents issued by the Office of Personnel Management and experts in federal pay.
The raises appear to be an intended consequence of the shutdown: When lawmakers failed to pass bills on Dec. 21 to fund multiple federal agencies, they allowed an existing pay freeze to lapse. Congress enacted a law capping pay for top federal executives in 2013 and renewed it each year. The raises will occur because that cap will expire without legislative action by Saturday, allowing raises that have accumulated over those years but never took effect to kick in, starting with paychecks issued next week.
Cabinet secretaries, for example, would be entitled to a jump in annual salary from $199,700 to $210,700. Deputy secretaries would be entitled to a raise from $179,700 to $189,600. Others affected are under secretaries, deputy directors and other top administrators.
The pay of Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to rise from $230,700 to $243,500.
There was no immediate comment Friday by the White House. **Surprise, surprise**.
The raises would cost taxpayers $300 million over ten years, according to the Senior Executives Association, which represents the government’s approximately 7,000 highest-paid career officials.
“At a time when more than 800,000 federal employees aren’t getting paid, it is absolutely outrageous that the Trump administration would even consider taking advantage of the shutdown to dole out huge raises to the vice president and its political appointees,” Rep. Nita Lowey, (D-N.Y.) the new chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in an email.
“The president has made it very clear: No wall, no deal,” Pence said. “We’re here to make a deal, but it’s a deal that’s going to result in achieving real gains on border security, and you have no border security without a wall. We will have no deal without a wall.”
though some republicans will bail, Collins has already, it is very, very unlikely enough republicans would bail on the president to override his veto.
I heard Texas Senator John Cornyn (#2 in the Senate & Majority Whip) respond to Gardner/Collins this morning.
Short & Sweet — “We will NOT Fold”.
Pelosi has put herself in a box. President Trump made all this clear last year when he signed the Omnibus Bill.
He said “Never Again”. McConnell & Cornyn believe him.
I'd give it a 80% chance. Those GOP Congress members are going to feel the heat when people cannot pay bills, the national parks are overflowing with garbage and deemed unhealthy, or when the farmers don't get their subsidy checks.
Trump can sit in the WH and sulk for months--they don't need him, and it will be terrible optics for Trump. He's back himself into a corner. He was ready to sign this bill, but decided to let Rush and Fox News make his decision. He looks like a fool. This bill will pass with or without Trump.
If they are closed, why would they be overflowing with trash?
Raise Beef cattle, instead of corn.
The National Parks are still open but there is very limited staff and there are human faces piling up at at least one.
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