WILL GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN ON TRUMP’S 100TH DAY IN OFFICE?

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By Miriam Raftery

April 24, 2017 (Washington D.C.) – If Congress does not approve a budget by close of business on this Friday, April 29th, the federal government will shut down.  That would cause disruptions in federal services, payments to federal workers, and the economy.   The deadline to pass a budget or shut down the government Friday is also Trump’s 100th day in office, a milestone when presidents traditionally seek to hail their accomplishments, not preside over a fiasco.

CNN reports that the Trump administration is willing to force a shutdown if funding to build the border wall is not included in the budget, despite the fact that Trump promised on the campaign trail that Mexico would pay for the wall.  Also a point of contention is the level of military spending at a time when Trump is ramping up military intervention in hot spots from Syria to North Korea.

Democrats have bristled at the administration’s threat to stop paying insurance agencies to continue funding healthcare under the Affordable Healthcare Act, putting the health of people covered by Obamacare at risk unless funding for the wall is approved. But fiscally conservative Republicans in the Freedom Caucus have also objected to money for the wall.  The tens of billions of dollars it would take to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border could more than pay for many of the programs that Trump seeks to cut or eliminate, from healthcare to food stamps to public television. 

Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House. But the Trump budget currently appears to lack enough votes to win the conservative wing of the Republican party in the House and Democrats may have just enough votes in the Senate to muster up a filibuster.  That means Trump may be forced to compromise with both conservatives and liberals, or one of those factions would have to cave in for the budget to win passage.

Trump has told federal agencies to prepare for a shutdown, while his press secretary Sean Spicer has voiced confidence that Congress will work out a deal to prevent that scenario, Bloomberg News reports.

On Sunday, Trump taunted Democrats in a Tweet reading, “The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s aide, Matt House, responding by calling the administration’s action heavy-handed.

One potential compromise would be a stopgap bill approved by Friday night’s deadline to fund the government short term and avoid constituents’ wrath at disruption of services ranging from VA to Social Security services to federal firefighting, thus delaying a showdown over budget priorities –for now.


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