Government Shutdown Begins as Budget Talks Falter in Senate

in #news6 years ago

From The New York Times


WASHINGTON — Much of the federal government officially shut down early Saturday morning after Senate Democrats, showing remarkable solidarity in the face of a clear political danger, blocked consideration of a stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating.

The shutdown, coming one year to the day after President Trump took office, set off a new round of partisan recriminations and posed risks for both parties. It came after a fruitless last-minute negotiating session at the White House between Mr. Trump and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader.

With just 50 senators voting in favor, Senate Republican leaders fell well short of the 60 votes necessary to proceed on the spending measure, which had passed the House on Thursday. Five conservative state Democrats voted for the spending measure. Five Republicans voted against it, although one of those, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, did so for procedural reasons.

As the clock ticked toward midnight, when funding for the government was set to expire, senators huddled on the floor of the crowded Senate chamber, searching for some way forward.

Then, in the early morning hours, Mr. McConnell proposed a measure that would keep the government open for another three weeks, not four as the House measure would have done, and said the Senate would come back to into session at noon Saturday.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/us/politics/senate-showdown-government-shutdown-trump.html

Well this was pretty much telegraphed to happen. Let the talking heads have at it!

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Trump's new year gift to the country .. the details of this rift are confusing to me but when I read that Schumer offered funding for the wall and increased military spending in exchange for preventing a shut down (and I guess protecting the Dreamers), John Kelly and Miller most likely overturned it. Trump is a puppet of a faction of white supremacists. He has almost no opinions on anything himself. So he's an empty shirt. What we need to worry about are the people behind the president who want to play with the lives of 3.6 million dreamers brought to the country as children .. why such a strong interest in immigration?

Citation for Schumer's offer? (Because Trump has been claiming this is the Democrats fault.)

As to your immigration question, partly because of white supremacists and partly because people have been told that immigrants are taking their jobs and causing crime. Which, really, is the white supremacists spreading rumors...

I consider immigration as smoke and mirrors for the most part ... divide and conquer about race and class envy by the ruling class while they give themselves huge tax cuts and continually enrich a tiny elite. The system looks broken. I'm very worried.

from the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/20/us-government-faces-shutdown-after-senate-rejects-funding-bill

"A source briefed on the meeting said Schumer offered not only to meet Trump’s full funding request for a border wall, but also agreed to boosting defense spending “far above” what the White House had requested.

In exchange, Schumer requested a short-term measure that would keep the government open for just a few days, in the hopes of keeping pressure on lawmakers to reach a broader compromise. The president even seemed amenable to Schumer’s approach, the source said, and told the Democratic leader he would broach the topic with Republican leaders.

But not long after Schumer returned to the Capitol, he received a phone call from John Kelly, the White House chief of staff. Kelly, who emerged as an unexpected hardliner on immigration, informed Schumer the contours of the deal he discussed with Trump were too liberal."

It seems like a goverment shutdown was a non event in the past, with a decline of the stock markets of less than 1%. Thanks for your post! Upvoted and resteemed!

There's a lot more to the country than the stock market.

Plus a million people temporarily without a job.

Perhaps this is what we needed. They have to get together and finally figure out how to lower the deficit. They should start with decreasing the government spending and staff.
Resteemed!

What a circus. I just shake my head in wonder. I am currently working part time due to weather and collecting part time unemployment checks. The shut down will delay payment. Not a problem for me but many people WILL BE affected. Thanks to our glorious public servants leading this nation.

So if I'm getting this right, or not let me know; it seems like the Democrats are blocking the spending to stop the 'boarder wall' from being funded. I also have heard that the Democrats are looking to become the party of undocumented immigrants and Middle Eastern refugees, both sometimes tend to have been groups that had a reputation to cause problems and not know the laws of the land they are transplanted into and break those laws and the Democrats want to protect those groups from what it sounds like. also i think this is more symbolic of a gesture to cause Dem branded 'mischief' symbolically on the day Trump got into office, " Jan 21st. " but this is just my silly conspiracy thinking on this thing or a general simple 'take-away' from it.

I guess you've been watching Fox news?

The Democrats aren't able to block anything. They aren't in power. They just aren't going to help the Republicans until they deal with the mess that was created by removing the DACA executive order.

This is Dem branded 'mischief' this is Trump and Republican branded incompetence.

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