President Donald Trump taunted the Democrats on Monday over their refusal to meet his demand for funding of a US-Mexican border wall — a dispute which has sparked a partial government shutdown.
“I’m in the Oval Office. Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall,” Trump tweeted.
Congress is in recess for the New Year’s holiday but will reopen on Thursday, while Trump has stayed in the White House through the year-end festivities, shelving his annual vacation to his private Florida golf resort amid the impasse.
To retaliate over the Democrats’ refusal to fund the wall, Trump is refusing to sign a wider spending package.
That has resulted in swaths of the federal government being shut down over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays — and for the foreseeable future until a deal is reached.
The standoff has turned into a test of strength between Trump and the Democrats, who will enter the new Congress in 2019 as the majority in the House of Representatives, after a decisive victory in the November midterm elections.
Trump says a wall is needed along the whole border to keep out migrants trying to enter the country illegally, casting them as an “invasion” force of dangerous criminals.
On Monday, he called the border “an ‘Open Wound,’ where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country.”
Democrats say the wall idea — one of the president’s key election campaign platforms — is a distraction from more complicated immigration problems and a tool for Trump to whip up support among his conservative base.
Democrats plan to put the ball back in Trump’s court immediately on Thursday by passing a general spending bill which would allow the government to reopen fully, but would not include extra wall construction money, US media reports said.
The bill will go from the Democratic-controlled House to the Republican-held Senate and from there, it would need Trump’s signature.
If he refused, still insisting on the wall funding, Democrats would then get ammunition to accuse him of being responsible for the government shutdown.
Attempts to craft a compromise have so far gained lukewarm support from the two sides.
One proposal would see extra funding for border barriers and other security, while also meeting the Democrats’ demand for work permits for young immigrants referred to as “Dreamers.”
_________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2018 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
