Republican Senator Graham urges Trump to open U.S. government temporarily

[webfact]

Republican Senator Graham urges Trump to open U.S. government temporarily

By Doina Chiacu

 

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "roundtable discussion on border security and safe communities" with state, local, and community leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 11, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican senator close to President Donald Trump on Sunday backed a temporary re-opening of the federal government, in the 23rd day of the longest shutdown ever, to allow for talks on a spending agreement that could satisfy Trump's border security demands.

 

Democrats in Congress rejected Trump's request that legislation to fund the government include $5.7 billion of taxpayer money for a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. They have refused further negotiations until the government is reopened after being partially shut down since Dec. 22.

 

Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he urged the president on Sunday to reopen the government for a limited period to try to get talks going again.

 

If no progress is made, he said, then Trump should declare a national emergency as a way to get money to build his wall, a plan not popular with some fellow Republicans.

 

"Before he pulls the plug on the legislative option, and I think we are almost there, I would urge them to open up the government for a short period of time, like three weeks, before he pulls the plug (to) see if we can get a deal," Graham said on "Fox News Sunday."

He said Trump told him, "Let's make a deal, then open up the government."

 

The record shutdown has furloughed 800,000 federal employees and cut government services across the United States. They missed their first paychecks on Friday, heightening concerns about mounting financial pressures on employees, including air traffic controllers and airport security officials who are working without pay.

 

Trump continued to blame Democrats for the impasse. "I'm in the White House, waiting. The Democrats are everywhere but Washington as people await their pay. They are having fun and not even talking!" Trump said Sunday on Twitter.

 

Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, responded on Twitter that, "Speaker Pelosi has been in DC all weekend working from the Capitol."

 

In a meeting last month with Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, Trump said he would be "proud" to shut down the government over wall funding. Recent polls show most Americans think the president is to blame.

 

Jennifer Lawless, a politics professor at the University of Virginia, said she believes Trump and Republicans will lose the game of chicken as furloughed workers, airport travellers, tourists and others "experience the consequences of political dysfunction firsthand."

 

"The shutdown is real. The wall is hypothetical. And at some point soon, the Republicans are going to remember that it's real people in their districts who aren't getting paid, real people who aren't able to access government services, and real people who vote," she said.

 

A concourse at Miami International Airport was shut down for part of the weekend because not enough Transportation Security Administration agents were present to staff all of the airport's the security checkpoints.

 

The airport said it would reopen the concourse on Monday and "continue to monitor checkpoint staffing levels and make adjustments as necessary."

 

Working without pay, TSA employees have been calling in sick in increasing numbers since the shutdown began. On Sunday, TSA said it had a 7.7 percent national rate in unscheduled absences, compared with 5.6 percent on Saturday and 3.2 percent a year ago.

 

Democrats hammered away at their demand that Trump reopen the government. Senator Tim Kaine called the wall, which could cost an estimated $23 billion, a "vanity project" that Trump promised Mexico - not U.S. taxpayers - would pay for.

 

"Put an end to the shutdown and put everything on the table," Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said on ABC's "This Week" show.

 

Trump campaigned against illegal immigration in 2016 and said a wall is necessary to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country.

 

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by David Shepardson and Sarah Lynch in Washington, and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-14

[Briggsy]

Trump won't do anything till he gets the green light from the Kremlin and Fox News.

 

The failure to govern is astounding. Perhaps even more astounding is that 32% of Americans still back him on the shutdown. Remarkable. An experiment in mass brainwashing.

 

History has shown us that empires always implode eventually. Is that what we are witnessing today?

[Tug]

He won’t do it he is to terrified of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News lol pretty pathetic lol

[keemapoot]

31 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Trump won't do anything till he gets the green light from the Kremlin and Fox News.

 

The failure to govern is astounding. Perhaps even more astounding is that 32% of Americans still back him on the shutdown. Remarkable. An experiment in mass brainwashing.

 

History has shown us that empires always implode eventually. Is that what we are witnessing today?

Yes, true about empires, and what we are seeing with Trump is a notable contraction of the American empire, a willing ceding of global power and influence to China and Russia, with intentional actions by Trump to do so to please his isolationist (Jimmy Stewart It's a Wonderful Life)  base. 

 

I don't think it's Trump brainwashing the base. I think it's Trump giving that base exactly what they want, and then doubling down on it. He accurately took the temperature of that group of 35% of the populace, and he keeps spoon feeding them exactly what they want: fear, jingoism, ethnocentrism, and false exceptionalism.

 

Hopefully, this is just a horrible glitch and malfunction of the American machine, and will be corrected shortly with Trump's removal, or at worst, 2 more years. It will then take many years to rebuild America's credibility, influence, and strength.

[Boon Mee]

What Trump needs to do enact the emergency powers act and close the southern border until he gets funding for the Wall.

End of story... ???? 

[farcanell]

19 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

What Trump needs to do enact the emergency powers act and close the southern border until he gets funding for the Wall.

End of story... ???? 

Well.... actually... would that really be the end of the story?

 

i suppose it would, if the “crisis” is a made up truck load of horse manure... but logically, not if the crisis is real

 

if the crisis is real.... then logically the border should remain shut until a good portion of the wall is actually built, because until then, there will be no discernible difference on the ground.... and we all know that the five billion, is just start up money.... money to make the “trump wall” signs, and money to start building “trump boulevard ” which will have to run along the entire border... and things of that ilk.... so at lot more than five billion will be needed

 

the “crisis” cannot simply be solved by appropriating money in a budget.... unless the “crisis” is a lie. Lol... imagine that, a president who would lie to his people over a border crisis.... that takes some beating... never happen, our president would never lie to us, I hear you say. ????????????.

 

Anyway.... moving forward, does anyone actually know which side of the river, the wall will be on?

 

 

[Berkshire]

46 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

What Trump needs to do enact the emergency powers act and close the southern border until he gets funding for the Wall.

End of story... ???? 

555555...yeah, let's get serious about the wall.  Let's bring all the troops back from overseas, station every last one of them on the border and make them build the wall.  Better yet, let's shut down the entire federal government.  No pay for anyone, including DoD, Congress, White House staff.  Better still, let's declare war on Mexico because they refuse to fund the wall.  Let's get serious because there is nothing more important than building that freakin wall....NOT!

[Chomper Higgot]

Trump has placed himself firmly against a wall, while the Democratic lead Congress, Mueller and the SDNY are busy constructing the other three.

 

He needs to focus on prison reform.

[Bluespunk]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

What Trump needs to do enact the emergency powers act and close the southern border until he gets funding for the Wall.

End of story... ???? 

He has no cause for calling an emergency, as there isn't one, beyond the one he is manufacturing that is.

 

Equally so, he has no mandate for a tax payer funded wall; he needs to accept this fact and end his shutdown.

 

He needs to act like a president and not a narcissistic child. 

[Srikcir]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

then Trump should declare a national emergency as a way to get money to build his wall

Trump calls the US southern border an "open border" that must be lined with a wall.

But what about the eighteen states that will still have open borders along their seacoasts, including Texas, Florida and California? While Trump temporarily dispatched 5,000 army troops to the Mexico-US border, none were sent to states' seacoast open borders.

Proof that Trump's proposed Mexico-US border $25 billion wall is merely a political gambit and not a national security issue.

Otherwise, Trump should be asking Congress for another $100 billion for Nazi-like Normandy coastal bunkers for eighteen states (not counting Alaska and Hawaii that have no walls along any border!).

[Srikcir]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he urged the president on Sunday to reopen the government for a limited period to try to get talks going again.

Maybe if Trump also agreed to shutdown the White House for a month (take a long golf vacation), productive talks might begin again.

[bristolboy]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

What Trump needs to do enact the emergency powers act and close the southern border until he gets funding for the Wall.

End of story... ???? 

Are you familiar with King Canute commanding the waves to stop? How did that turn out? Not much worse than Trump commanding the southern border to be closed.

[Basil B]

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

Maybe if Trump also agreed to shutdown the White House for a month (take a long golf vacation), productive talks might begin again.

Congress should cut the White House budget, Tell him to make his own frigging Breakfast...

[sstuff3]

I personally hope he keeps the government closed until the border wall is fully funded. Anyone saying this is a "manufactured" crisis obviously doesn't know the facts (or are blinded by their hatred of this President) and their families have not been affected by illegal aliens.

Keep it CLOSED! Build the wall!

 

[IAMHERE]

So go ahead and build the wall, it is only five or six billion. That isn't much money when there is a trillion dollar deficit. Build the wall with the extra tariff money from the Chinese.

[bendejo]

7 hours ago, Briggsy said:

The failure to govern is astounding. Perhaps even more astounding is that 32% of Americans still back him on the shutdown. Remarkable. An experiment in mass brainwashing.

Not an experiment, a tried and true protocol, it's called Republicanism.

They do what they're told, who to support, and they do it.  Don't worry about the details, The Party will take care of it.

The saying regarding presidential candidates is "Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line."  Democrats do not like to be told who to vote for.

 

Maybe I've been missing this in the past, but the Trumpistas think that because they voted for him, and continue to support him, that they will get some sort of special treatment and the non-believers will be made to suffer.  People falling on hard times due to the shutdown and trade wars are asking "why us?"  I've never heard this sentiment before, even in the Reaganmania days. 

 

 

 

[Different]

Maybe the cement concrete walls to be given to one of Trump construction, real estate company.

[Jingthing]

31 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

So go ahead and build the wall, it is only five or six billion. That isn't much money when there is a trillion dollar deficit. Build the wall with the extra tariff money from the Chinese.

Incorrect. 5 billion would only pay for a small new section. The reason "trump" needs this is purely for propaganda purposes, to satisfy a key promise to his base even though he's still trying to sell the big lie about Mexico paying for it (now "indirectly"). So then he can pose with a shiny new section for his 2020 reelection campaign ads, if he makes it that far. 

 

It's an unacceptable precedent for a toxic narcissist race baiting demagogue con man president to hold the entire nation hostage to get money to start his vanity branding propaganda project. All patriotic American of any party should not give this wannabe dictator one penny under these terms. Get it from legislation or not and if not, accept defeat. As he recently lost a major election where the people overwhelmingly rejected building the great wall of "trump" by flipping the house, no he can't and won't get this from normal legislation either.

 

 

[ballpoint]

I like how people who complain about getting ripped off for 10 baht are so keen to spend $5 billion on a narcissist's folly,  especially when the number of illegals will probably actually increase in the short term, as they all cross over, blend into the construction teams and wall themselves into the US. 

 

(It would almost be worth building the thing though, if only to hear the excuses when the number of crimes committed by illegal immigrants is totally unaffected by it.)

[Becker]

1 hour ago, IAMHERE said:

So go ahead and build the wall, it is only five or six billion. That isn't much money when there is a trillion dollar deficit. Build the wall with the extra tariff money from the Chinese.

What tariff money??

[Skeptic7]

6 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

So go ahead and build the wall, it is only five or six billion. That isn't much money when there is a trillion dollar deficit. Build the wall with the extra tariff money from the Chinese.

Umm...there is no "extra" money of any kind, as long as there is a huge deficit. 

[bristolboy]

7 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

So go ahead and build the wall, it is only five or six billion. That isn't much money when there is a trillion dollar deficit. Build the wall with the extra tariff money from the Chinese.

The extra tariff money may directly come from the Chinese, but the Chinese will be getting the money from Americans who will actually be paying more for Chinese goods because of the tariffs.

[sstuff3]

Umm...there is no "extra" money of any kind, as long as there is a huge deficit. 

Since when did a deficit stop anything? Didn't bother Obama who nearly doubled it in his 8 years. [emoji849]

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[utalkin2me]

I don't get it. Call me dense. But why can't they either keep the finance departments open so the paychecks can go out, or why can't they let them go in for a day or two to get checks out? They are gonna go out anyway. Why is stuff like this such a mystery? They obviously keep many parts of the govt open, so why not those parts that can keep people paid? 

[Skeptic7]

4 hours ago, utalkin2me said:

I don't get it. Call me dense. But why can't they either keep the finance departments open so the paychecks can go out, or why can't they let them go in for a day or two to get checks out? They are gonna go out anyway. Why is stuff like this such a mystery? They obviously keep many parts of the govt open, so why not those parts that can keep people paid? 

It's a power play. Using the common folk and grunts as pawns in a game of ego chess. Notice how the part of the gov't that pays the House and Senate is still open. Ideally the US gov't serves the people, not the other way around. Has not been that way for decades, maybe half century or more. Now the gov't controls the people in every aspect, spies on them, uses them, overtaxes them and even sacrifices them. All for either personal gain and/or fodder...feeding the behemoth and keeping it sated, obese and growing. 

[Skeptic7]

6 hours ago, sstuff3 said:

Since when did a deficit stop anything? Didn't bother Obama who nearly doubled it in his 8 years.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Didn't say it stops them. Just making the point that the term "extra money" is ridiculous with a $21 Trillion debt. 

 

Anyway, Trump promised a wall that Mexico would pay for! Now he wants the US to fund it, adding to the $2 trillion he has already increased the debt load. 

 

And just to be fair, while Obama did have the highest dollar amount increase in the US national debt...it is actually only the 5th largest by percentage at 74%. For perspective, "W" grew the national debt by 101%. #2 by dollar amount and #4 by percentage. 

[keemapoot]

10 hours ago, bristolboy said:

The extra tariff money may directly come from the Chinese, but the Chinese will be getting the money from Americans who will actually be paying more for Chinese goods because of the tariffs.

Yeah, sure one could use a convoluted formula to try to track any possible benefits from extra tariffs, but as you correctly illustrate, America's addition to cheaper/better Chinese-built goods just continues, unabated, and for understandable fundamental reasons based in competitive advantages of economies and nations.

 

Quote

Trump said his negotiations with China were “going very well,” but figures released Monday by the Chinese government showed that his plan isn’t working. Instead the U.S. trade deficit with China grew 17 percent in 2018, to a record $323.32 billion. 

Trump's trade war with China is failing, as are his big boasts on Steel and coal. This was always going to happen to Trump eventually with such tenuous grasp of economics and at legacy industries policy.

 

Keeping the government shut only exacerbates his other failing policies.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-promises-coal-steel-china-trade-falling-flat-235120673.html

[Basil B]

On 1/14/2019 at 6:42 AM, Basil B said:

Tell him to make his own frigging Breakfast...

 

Quote

 

Trump orders '300 burgers' to White House amid shutdown

US President Donald Trump has put on a fast food feast at the White House, blaming the lack of catering staff on the partial government shutdown.

He welcomed the winners of the national college football championship, the Clemson Tigers, with more than 300 burgers as well as fries and pizzas.

"Because of the shutdown... we went out and we ordered American fast food paid for by me," he told reporters.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46873386

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[sstuff3]

Trump's trade war with China is failing, as are his big boasts on Steel and coal. This was always going to happen to Trump eventually with such tenuous grasp of economics and at legacy industries policy.
 
Keeping the government shut only exacerbates his other failing policies.
 
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-promises-coal-steel-china-trade-falling-flat-235120673.html

The trade war with China is failing? I work with several companies in China that would say otherwise. They are begging their government to find a compromise. Turn off CNN and find out the truth for yourself. You may be surprised. You're off the mark on the steel industry too [emoji849]

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[keemapoot]

The trade war with China is failing? I work with several companies in China that would say otherwise. They are begging their government to find a compromise. Turn off CNN and find out the truth for yourself. You may be surprised. You're off the mark on the steel industry too [emoji849]

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Of course every company in China is begging for an end to the trade war. I provided proof that the trade balance with China is at an all time high. How is that not failing by Trump?


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