WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official signaled Sunday that President Donald Trump is willing to accept less money than he’s been demanding to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall, but a senior congressional Democrat said that, while their own offer could be sweetened, they still will not agree to a wall.
The back and forth across the television airwaves did little to inspire hope that a Christmas season closure of some federal government operations would end later this week, when the House and Senate are scheduled to meet again.
In fact, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney warned that the shutdown could stretch into January, when a new Congress is seated.
Breitbart TV
Mulvaney, who also runs the White House budget office, said he’s awaiting a response from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York after the administration on Saturday presented Schumer with a counteroffer in the long-running dispute over funding the wall.
Mulvaney withheld specifics but placed the offer at between Trump’s $5.7 billion request and $1.3 billion Democrats are offering.
“We moved off of the five and we hope they move up from their 1.3,” Mulvaney said.
The director’s comment about the president’s softening stance came less than 24 hours after a senior administration official insisted to reporters on Saturday that Congress give into Trump’s demands, highlighting the unpredictable nature of Trump’s negotiating style.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., argued instead for increasing the use of technology along the border instead of building “some medieval wall.”
Asked whether he’s willing to increase the price tag as long as the money is not spent on a wall, Durbin responded: “Absolutely.”
A stalemate over the wall led parts of the government to shut down Saturday after funding for numerous departments and agencies expired. The closure, affecting hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country, was expected to last at least through late this week after the House and Senate, which each met in a rare weekend session, adjourned until Thursday.
Monday and Tuesday, Christmas Eve and Christmas, respectively, are federal holidays, meaning the federal government would already be closed. Wednesday is the first day the public could begin to feel the effects of a shutdown, Mulvaney said.
He predicted it could extend into January, when Democrats will assume control of the House based on their midterm election gains.
“It’s very possible that this shutdown will go beyond the 28th and into the new Congress,” Mulvaney said.
Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Schumer, countered: “If Director Mulvaney says the Trump Shutdown will last into the New Year, believe him, because it’s their shutdown.”
Democrats held firm Sunday in opposition to a wall, which Trump promised his political base would build. Mulvaney said that “the president’s not going to not accept money for a border wall.”
Trump faced resistance from some Republicans. Retiring Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who has criticized Trump on other issues, called the battle for border wall funding a “made-up fight so the president can look like he’s fighting.”
“This is something that is unnecessary. It’s a spectacle. And, candidly, it’s juvenile. The whole thing is juvenile,” Corker said in arguing for real measures that he maintains will secure the border better than a wall.
Trump tweeted Sunday, the shutdown’s second day, that what’s needed is “a good old fashioned WALL that works,” not aerial drones or other measures that “are wonderful and lots of fun” but not the answer to address drugs, gangs, human trafficking and other criminal elements entering the country.
Across the country, the shutdown played out in uneven ways. The Statue of Liberty remained open for tours, thanks to New York state, and the U.S. Postal Service, an independent agency, was still delivering mail.
But the routines of 800,000 federal employees were about to be disrupted. More than half are deemed essential and are expected to work without pay, through retroactive pay is expected. Another 380,000 were to be furloughed, meaning they will not report to work but would be paid later. Legislation ensuring that workers receive back pay was expected to clear Congress.
Trump was staying in Washington for Christmas because of the shutdown, the White House said.
With Democrats set to take control of the House on Jan. 3, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., retiring from Congress, the shutdown provided a last gasp for the conservative majority before the new Congress.
Trump had savored the prospect of a shutdown over the wall. He recently said he’d be “proud” to close down the government and has gone back on his pledge to not blame Democrats for the closure.
He had campaigned on the promise of building the wall and forcing Mexico to pay for it. Mexico has refused.
Schumer and Pence met Saturday at the request of the White House, according to Schumer’s office. But the senator’s spokesman said they remained “very far apart” on a spending agreement.
Schumer said the “Trump shutdown” could end immediately if the president abandons the wall.
Democrats said they were open to proposals that didn’t include the wall, which Schumer said was too costly and ineffective. They have offered to keep spending at existing levels of $1.3 billion for border fencing and other security.
Senators approved a bipartisan deal earlier in the week to keep the government open into February and provide $1.3 billion for border security projects, but not the wall. But as Trump faced criticism from conservatives for “caving” on a campaign promise, he pushed the House to approve a package temporarily financing the government but also setting aside $5.7 billion for the border wall.
The impasse blocked money for nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice.
Those being furloughed included nearly everyone at NASA and 52,000 workers at the Internal Revenue Service. Many national parks were expected to close.
The Pentagon and the departments of Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services are among that Congress has fully funded and will operate as usual. Also still functioning were the FBI, the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard.
Transportation Security Administration officers continue to staff airport checkpoints and air traffic controllers were on the job.
Mulvaney appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and ABC’s “This Week.” Merkley also appeared on ABC. Durbin spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Mary Clare Jalonick, Jill Colvin, Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
"There are clearly two tiers of justice – one for the Trump circle and another for everyone else. There are those who are in the club, and those who are not." BRIAN C. JOONEPH
December 23, 2018
December 23, 2018
The Swamp Is Growing Deeper
President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 with two simple promises: draining the swamp and building the wall. Last I looked, the wall isn't being built, based on Friday evening's Senate vote, and the swamp waters are rising. It seems that the D.C. swamp is growing deeper, and rapidly.
How does this bode for the president's next two years and his potential re-election? If the swamp gets deeper between now and 2020, can he be re-elected? We are told to "trust the plan," but where is that getting us?
Many of us still hang in there, because where else can we go? If not Trump, then who? The Republican bench is thin. The few making noises about running for president are themselves not at all different from any of the Democrats getting ready to challenge Trump in 2020. Names such as Jeff Flake, John Kasich, and Ben Sasse don't inspire confidence.
Democrats are in far worse shape, with their leading contenders farther left than either Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, each striving to be the next Hugo Chávez.
Looking at the landscape before Christmas, I see a deepening swamp. Instead of draining, the water level is rising and, at its current rate, will soon be overflowing its banks.
Michael Flynn, illegally spied upon during the Trump transition, set up by the Comey FBI, then squeezed financially dry by Robert Mueller and his merry band of partisan lawyers, is the most recent swamp casualty. His biggest crime is being an early Trump-supporter, and for that reason alone he was set up for ruin.
As Gateway Pundit pointed out, "Mike Flynn and Tony Podesta did [the] same work for Turkey, both filed retroactively – Flynn's life is in tatters as Podesta walks free." So much for equal protection and the rule of law.
There are clearly two tiers of justice – one for the Trump circle and another for everyone else. There are those who are in the club, and those who are not.
There is not only General Flynn, but also Paul Manafort, on the hot seat for the crime of working for Donald Trump. "The Podesta Group somehow managed to file forms with the federal government retroactively that were 5 or more years overdue that Paul Manafort was charged for not filing," Gateway Pundit wrote. Unequal justice once again.
Then there is Michael Cohen. He's a New York City lawyer, a fixer, who also had the unfortunate luck of working for Donald Trump. Now he is headed to prison for three years. Granted, he didn't pay his taxes, but does anyone believe that if Hillary Clinton were president now, the federal government would have any interest in Cohen, Manafort, or Flynn?
As the swamp waters rise, the drownings mount. These three are examples, guilty of the unforgivable Deep State crime of associating with Donald Trump. You see, it's not only about stopping Trump; it's about sending a message to anyone else in Trump's orbit to disappear, lest he be next.
It's a further message to any outsider not from the establishment club never to dare run for president and challenge the Deep State. The goal is to make it loud and clear that Trump and his kind are not welcome – just as the KKK sent a message to blacks in the 1950s that their "kind" was not welcome in polite society.
This message was delivered in a tweet by Obama hack David Plouffe. It's more than just ruining Trump. It's about never letting a Trump presidency happen again.
What happened to the border wall? Attend a Trump rally, and one of the chants is "build that wall." Also chanted is "lock her up," but that's not happening, either. Republicans ran Congress for two years and had ample opportunity to appropriate funds for the wall. They managed to fund Planned Parenthood, despite campaign promises to the contrary, but couldn't follow through on the issue that got many of them elected on Trump's coattails.
Despite last-minute meetings and threats of a government shutdown, as of Saturday morning, there is no budget deal or wall funding, and the government is partially shut down, just in time for Christmas. Congress is headed home, and now is the perfect time for the media to blame all of this on President Trump, with little pushback from any Republicans.
Score another point for the Deep State. Few in Washington, D.C. want a border wall. This is a truly bipartisan consensus, as Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi have the same interest in Trump's wall – namely zero.
Democrats, even in the minority, run Congress. All they have to do is say "shutdown," and Republicans cower in fear, giving Democrats everything they want. As Mark Levin notes, 75 percent of the government is funded for the next year, immune to any shutdown. House Republicans, after dithering for two years, were finally shamed into appropriating money for the wall. Too bad the Senate couldn't do the same.
Instead, the administration is giving Mexico $10.6 billion in aid along with $5.8 billion to Central America. But Congress has nothing for the wall. In my wistful dreams, Mexico uses the money to build a wall along its U.S. border, fulfilling Trump's promise to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. How Trumpian that would be, but the odds of that happening are the same as the odds that Mueller is secretly investigating the Clinton Foundation.
What else is happening in the swamp?
There is a new acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker. He is as inconspicuous as his predecessor, Jeff Sessions. Recent news is that he will not recuse himself from the Russia probe, but so what? Is he in charge of the Mueller investigation, or is Rod Rosenstein still running the show?
Has Mueller been told to wrap up his investigation and issue a final report on Russian collusion, as Rudy Giuliani keeps promising? Or is Mueller on a jihad to go after everyone in Trump's orbit, waiting until they jaywalk and then threatening them with personal and financial ruin if they don't flip on Trump?
James Comey, one of the instigators of spygate, is out giving speeches, bragging about how he skirted the law he was sworn to uphold, entrapping General Flynn. He has forgotten details about Hillary Clinton's illegal handling of email, and that's OK. Jerome Corsi forgets details of a two-year-old email, and the weight of the U.S. justice system is about to crush him.
FISA warrant applications, which Trump promised to declassify months ago, remain under wraps. Tens of thousands of sealed indictments remain sealed. Perhaps they have labels on them saying: "Do not open until Christmas (2025)."
Justice Department white hats, such as prosecutor John Huber and Inspector General Michael Horowitz, with their teams of hundreds of lawyers, were said to be bringing pain to the Deep State. Huber didn't even testify before Congress last week, as he was supposed to. Where are their reports? I don't see any Deep-State pain, only celebration, as they appear to be winning the game.
Trump's economy is on overdrive, and the Deep State won't abide that. This is why interest rates have been slowly creeping north and will continue to do so ahead of the 2020 election. No better way to put out a brisk fire than to sprinkle water on it slowly, with assistance from the Deep State Fed.
Last Wednesday, the Fed announced an interest rate hike, with more next year, sending the Dow down 720 points. The media will dutifully blame Trump for any economic downturn, even one orchestrated by the Deep State.
Like a sinking boat, the Trump administration is taking on water. Despite Trump's tenacity and vigor pulling the oars, even the most seaworthy boat will sink if it takes on enough water.
Maybe Trump has a plan. Perhaps he is "pacing," as Rush Limbaugh calls it, saying and doing one thing in public while big things are going on behind the scenes. Yet as time goes on, we see little evidence of the latter.
Trump has only his base of deplorables. Washington, D.C. and the media are unified in their opposition with a single-minded objective to destroy him. If Trump doesn't fight back in the manner of which he is more than capable, the swamp waters will soon flood the White House and the hopes and dreams that his voters had in 2016.
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Swamp Keeper Trump prepares for the inevitable move to impeach him and ask for asylum in Scotland.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in an interview Thursday that President Donald Trump has succeeded as a conversation starter but has failed to keep his most important campaign promises.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in an interview Thursday that President Donald Trump has succeeded as a conversation starter but has failed to keep his most important campaign promises.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/did-trump-promise-mexico-no-pardon-for.html
CRIMINAL GLOBALIST BANKSTERS AND THE POLITICIANS THEY BOUGHT:
The Story of Goldman Sachs and Clinton, Obama and Trump corruption.
Goldman Sachs, GE, Pfizer, the United Auto Workers—the same “special interests” Barack Obama was supposed to chase from the temple—are profiting handsomely from Obama’s Big Government policies that crush taxpayers, small businesses, and consumers. In Obamanomics, investigative reporter Timothy P. Carney digs up the dirt the mainstream media ignores, and the White House wishes you wouldn’t see. Rather than Hope and Change, Obama is delivering corporate socialism to America, all while claiming he’s battling corporate America. It’s corporate welfare and regulatory robbery—it’s OBAMANOMICS TO SERVE THE RICH AND GLOBALIST BILLIONAIRES.
THE TRUMP FAMILY FOUNDATION SLUSH FUND…. Will they see jail?
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!.... We know where they live!
“Underwood is a Democrat and is seeking millions of dollars in penalties. She wants Trump and his eldest children barred from running other charities.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in an interview Thursday that President Donald Trump has succeeded as a conversation starter but has failed to keep his most important campaign promises.
“His chief promises were that he would build the wall, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and repeal Obamacare, and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson told Urs Gehriger of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche.
Swamp Keeper Trump prepares for the inevitable move to impeach him and ask for asylum in Scotland.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in an interview Thursday that President Donald Trump has succeeded as a conversation starter but has failed to keep his most important campaign promises.
“His chief promises were that he would build the wall, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and repeal Obamacare, and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson told Urs Gehriger of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche.
THE REAL REASON SWAMP KEEPER TRUMP DECLINED TO INVESTIGATE HILLARY CLINTON AND HER PHONY CHARITY SLUSH FUND
"But what the Clintons do is criminal because they do it wholly at the expense of the American people. And they feel thoroughly entitled to do it: gain power, use it to enrich themselves and their friends. They are amoral, immoral, and venal. Hillary has no core beliefs beyond power and money. That should be clear to every person on the planet by now." ---- Patricia McCarthy - AMERICANTHINKER.com
“But if she shows any sign of weakness, her cronies will begin to desert her, those she trampled on and harmed will seek payback, and the authorities will at last stir themselves to look into things. The current investigations will continue and expand. Others will be opened. Clinton can look forward to an old age spent in courthouses and committee rooms. She will end up as one of those Mafia dons slumped in a wheelchair while the lawyers attempt to generate sympathy. And that’s fine. She has earned the most Hellenic of punishments.”
THE PHONY CLINTON FOUNDATION CHARITY slush fund
“There is no controlling Bill Clinton. He does whatever he wants and runs up incredible expenses with foundation funds,” states a separate interview memo attached to the submission.
“Bill Clinton mixes and matches his personal business with that of the foundation. Many people within the foundation have tried to caution him about this but he does not listen, and there really is no talking to him,” the memo added.
He is the only one in the country that has consistently spoken out for the AMERICAN WORKER!
Sessions should keep dragging Trump out of his amnesty closet and build the wall against NARCOMEX!
END THE MEX INVASION – IMPOSE BORDER to OPEN BORDER E-VERIFY and put EMPLOYERS OF ILLEGALS IN PRISON!
Notice how we never hear the phony populist Trump talking about E-VERIFY!
AMERICA: NO LEGAL NEED APPLY!
“The percentage of foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force has more than tripled over the last four decades and while the U.S. represents just 5 percent of the world’s population it attracts 20 percent of the world’s immigrants, according to a new report.”
Open the floodgates of our welfare state to the uneducated, impoverished, and unskilled masses of the world and in a generation or three America, as we know it, will be gone.
Those most impacted are middle class and lower middle class. It is they whose jobs are taken, whose raises are postponed, whose schools are filled with non-English speaking children that absorb precious resources for remedial English, whose public parks are trashed and whose emergency rooms serve as the local clinic for the illegal underground.
“Currently, the U.S. admits more than 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants every year, with more than 70 percent coming to the country through the process known as “chain migration” whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of relatives to the U.S. In the next 20 years, the current U.S. legal immigration system is on track to import 15 million new foreign-born voters. Between 7 and 8 million of those foreign-born voters will arrive in the U.S. through chain migration.” JOHN BINDER
THE SECRET REPORT ON ILLEGALS TAKING MIDDLE AND HIGH END JOBS…. What? You thought they only took the shit jobs?
