Trump doesn’t have the votes? No kidding.
by digby
Remember this?
HOUSE SPEAKER-DESIGNATE PELOSI: — you begin, you make your point, you state your case. That’s what the House Republicans could do, if they had the votes. But there are no votes in the House, a majority of votes, for a wall — no matter where you start.
SENATE MINORITY LEADER SCHUMER: That is exactly right. You don’t have the votes in the House.
THE PRESIDENT: If I needed the votes for the wall in the House, I would have them — in one session, it would be done.
HOUSE SPEAKER-DESIGNATE PELOSI: Well, then go do it. Go do it.
Pelosi knew what the votes were and knew the president has about as much clout on legislation as Melania does. Maybe less. He doesn’t have the votes:
“House GOP considered putting legislation on floor w/$5-B for border wall as Trump demanded. But leaders eventually told the president that there were not enough votes to pass it”
in other words, Pelosi wasn’t bluffing. she knew where the votes were. https://t.co/PWQt0OjdSR— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 18, 2018
Here’s where we are at the moment:
President Trump on Tuesday retreated from his demand for $5 billion to build a border wall, as congressional Republicans maneuvered to avoid a partial government shutdown before funding expires at the end of Friday.
But Democrats immediately rejected Republicans’ follow-up offer, leaving the two sides still at impasse as hundreds of thousands of federal workers await word on whether they will be sent home without pay just before Christmas.
The new border funding offer from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) calls on Congress to pass a $1.6 billion homeland security spending bill that was crafted earlier this year in a bipartisan Senate compromise.
Under the offer, Congress would also reprogram $1 billion in unspent funds that Trump could use on his immigration policies. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who oversees the panel in charge of homeland security funding, said the reprogrammed money would not be able to be used for a physical wall but could be spent on other border security measures.
Sen. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told McConnell Tuesday that Democrats would not accept the deal, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) criticized the plan to reprogram the funds.
“Leader Schumer and I have said that we cannot support the offer they made of a billion-dollar slush fund for the president to implement his very wrong immigration policies,” Pelosi said. “So that won’t happen.”
Why in the world should anyone give Donald Trump a billion dollar “slush fund” for anything? That’s not how this works. It’s not how any of this works.
If you want to know what the Trumpies are so afraid of:
President Donald Trump, clad in a golf shirt and golf hat under a warm South Florida sun, hitting a drive off the tee while Secret Service agents protecting him are forced to work without paychecks, possibly for weeks, because Congress wouldn’t pay for Trump’s “Great Wall.”
Such is the nightmare public relations scenario facing the White House less than a week before the Department of Homeland Security and other key government agencies run out of money at midnight Friday while Trump is scheduled to fly that day to his Mar-a-Lago resort for a 16-day vacation.
Trump doesn’t care about any of that, of course. In fact, I doubt he even cares much about his stupid wall or anything else that doesn’t have to do with Grand Juries, subpoenas, lawsuits, investigations and congressional oversight right now. Undoubtedly the only thing he wants to do all day is sooth himself with Fox News and talk to friends on the phone who tell him it’s all going to be ok.
And Republicans in congress just want to get out of town and go home to lick their wounds. Trump doesn’t even know how many will be around for a vote — the defeated congressmen aren’t even showing up for work! They’re going on TV and saying they have no idea what the president wants to do and the White House is pretty much telling hem to do whatever they want. It’s a mess.
Presumably, there will be some kind of agreement to stave off a shutdown but you never know. The president is missing in action and the Republicans have lost the capacity to even pretend to govern. Stay tuned.
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cheers — digby
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