Time is running out for US President Donald Trump in his showdown with the Democrats over the Mexican wall.
Margaret Talev
January 8 2019 2:30 AM
Time is running out for US President Donald Trump in his showdown with the Democrats over the Mexican wall.
Mr Trump insists he’s prepared to keep part of the US government shut down for more than a year if necessary to get the money he wants for a wall on the border.
But a series of deadlines over the next seven weeks will pile pressure on Mr Trump to do a deal to end a shutdown that could soon become the longest in history.
Hundreds of thousands of workers at nine Cabinet departments and other agencies will soon start to miss pay cheques, and the longer the standoff continues, the more consequences Mr Trump and Congress will face.
Courts will close, rubbish will not be collected in National Parks and eagerly anticipated tax refunds will not be paid.
Later in the year, unrelated issues will compound the shutdown’s problems – the US debt limit will need to be increased, and Congress will have to strike a deal with Mr Trump to prevent steep, automatic cuts in federal spending.
Mr Trump said at a news conference on Friday that « I’m very proud of what I’m doing » and invited reporters to call it « the Schumer or the Pelosi or the Trump shutdown », referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the new House speaker.
« Doesn’t make any difference to me. Just words, » he said.
Vice-president Mike Pence and other administration officials, with senior Congressional aides, produced no breakthroughs as Democrats and Republicans remained far apart in their demands. No further meetings of the group are scheduled.
This Friday about 800,000 federal workers on furlough, or working without pay, will miss their first pay cheque. That milestone will significantly escalate the political pain of the shutdown. While federal workers are not allowed to strike, many can be expected to eventually walk off the job and go work elsewhere – a challenge for maintaining services like the TSA, that is essential for air travel.
The longest shutdown on record was in 1995. The government was closed for 21 days because then-president Bill Clinton and congressional Republicans, in charge of both chambers for the first time in more than 40 years, couldn’t agree on a spending plan.
