Chuck Schumer is taking his big spending boost for Donald Trump’s border wall off the table.
The Senate minority leader, through an aide, informed the White House that he was retracting the offer he made last week to give Trump well north of the $1.6 billion in wall funding Trump had asked for this year, according to two Democrats. And now they say Trump will simply not get a better deal than that on his signature campaign promise.
Schumer “took it off,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “He called the White House yesterday and said it’s over.”
After the publication of this story, a spokesman clarified that the wall offer was retracted Sunday, rather than Monday. Schumer told reporters that he withdrew his suggestion, offered midday Friday, because it was meant to be part of a broader package that would have averted a government shutdown.
Yeah, makes sense.
Especially since Trump agreed verbally to the deal put forward by the Democrats, only to do a 180 when pressured by the conservative anti-immigration Republicans.
Of course this irritated Trump who took to Twitter to complain.
"Cryin' Chuck Scumer?" Seriously?Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA. We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2018
It is looking more and more as if we are not going to have a deal before this next deadline on February 8th.
Which means this temporary stopgap to avoid a government shutdown may be very temporary indeed.
But hey, at least the Democrats were able to get the CHIP program back up and running.
Source http://ift.tt/2DHJYa8
