NATION
East Oregonian
Page 8A
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Government shuts down; Dems, GOP blame each other
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
federal government shut down
at the stroke of midnight Friday,
halting all but the most essential
operations and marring the one-year
anniversary of President Donald
Trump’s inauguration in a striking
display of Washington dysfunction.
Last-minute negotiations crum-
bled as Senate Democrats blocked
a four-week stopgap extension
in a late-night vote, causing the
fourth government shutdown in a
quarter century. Behind the scenes,
however, leading Republicans and
Democrats were already moving
toward a next step, trying to work
out a compromise to avert a lengthy
shutdown.
Since the shutdown began at
the start of a weekend, many of the
immediate effects will be muted for
most Americans. But any damage
could build quickly if the closure
is prolonged. And it comes with no
shortage of embarrassment for the
president and political risk for both
parties, as they wager that voters
will punish the other at the ballot
box in November.
Social Security and most other
safety net programs are unaffected
by the lapse in federal spending
authority. Critical government func-
tions will continue, with uniformed
service members, health inspectors
and law enforcement officers set to
work without pay. But if no deal is
brokered before Monday, hundreds
of thousands of federal employees
will be furloughed.
After hours of closed-door
meetings and phone calls, the
Senate scheduled its late-night vote
on a House-passed plan. It gained
50 votes to proceed to 48 against,
but 60 were needed to break a
Democratic filibuster. A handful
of red-state Democrats crossed
the aisle to support the measure,
rather than take a politically risky
vote. Four Republicans voted in
opposition.
In an unusual move, Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
allowed the roll call to exceed 90
minutes — instead of the usual 20 or
so — and run past midnight, seem-
ingly accommodating the numerous
discussions among leaders and
other lawmakers. Still as midnight
passed and the calendar turned,
there was no obvious off-ramp to
the political stalemate. Each party
expressed resolve in its position —
and confidence that the other would
suffer the wrath of voters.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Police tape marks a secured area of the Capitol, Friday in Washington, as a bitterly-divided Congress
hurtles toward a government shutdown this weekend.
Even before the vote, Trump was
pessimistic, tweeting that Demo-
crats actually wanted the shutdown
“to help diminish the success” of
the tax bill he and fellow Repub-
licans pushed through last month.
White House press secretary Sarah
Sanders later termed the Democrats
“obstructionist losers.”
Democrats balked on the
measure in an effort to pressure on
the White House to cut a deal to
protect “dreamer” immigrants —
who were brought to the country as
children and are now here illegally
— before their legal protection runs
out in March.
The president watched the results
from the White House residence,
dialing up allies and affirming his
belief that Democrats would take
the blame for the shutdown, said a
person familiar with his conversa-
tions but not authorized to discuss
them publicly.
Predictably, both parties moved
swiftly to blame one another.
Democrats laid fault with Repub-
licans, who control both chambers
of Congress and the White House
and have struggled with building
internal consensus. Republicans
declared Democrats responsible,
after they declined to provide the
votes needed to overcome a fili-
0
buster in the Senate over their desire
to force the passage of legislation
to protect some 700,000 younger
immigrants from deportation.
Republicans
branded
the
confrontation a “Schumer shut-
down” and argued that Democrats
were harming fellow Americans to
protect “illegal immigrants.”
Trump had brought Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer
to the White House Friday after-
noon in hopes of cutting a deal. But
the two New Yorkers, who pride
themselves on their negotiating
abilities, emerged without an
agreement, and Republicans and
Democrats in Congress continued
to pass off responsibility.
“We made some progress, but
we still have a good number of
disagreements,” Schumer said upon
returning to Capitol Hill. Budget
Director Mick Mulvaney told
CNN that “Not much has changed”
over the course of the day, but he
predicted a deal would be reached
by Monday, when most govern-
ment offices are to reopen after the
weekend.
Democrats in the Senate had
served notice they would filibuster
the government-wide funding bill
that cleared the House Thursday
evening. They were seeking an
even shorter extension that they
think would keep the pressure on
the White House to cut a deal to
protect the “dreamer” immigrants.
“We will not negotiate the
status of unlawful immigrants
while Democrats hold our lawful
citizens hostage over their reckless
demands,” Sanders said in a state-
ment.
Trump first described his discus-
sion with Schumer as an “excellent
preliminary meeting,” tweeting that
lawmakers were “making progress
- four week extension would be
best!” But that optimism faded as
the evening wore on. McConnell
did not attend the meeting because
he was not invited, a Senate GOP
aide said.
Trump had been an unreliable
negotiator in the weeks leading
up to the showdown. Earlier this
week he tweeted opposition to
the four-week plan, forcing the
White House to later affirm his
support. He expressed openness to
extending the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals program, only
to reject a bipartisan proposal. His
disparaging remarks about African
and Haitian immigrants last week
helped derail further negotiations.
Trump had been set to leave
Friday afternoon to attend a fund-
raiser at his Palm Beach, Florida,
estate marking the one-year
anniversary of his inauguration but
delayed his travel.
As word of the Schumer meeting
spread, the White House hastened to
reassure Republican congressional
leaders that Trump would not make
any major policy concessions, said
a person familiar with the conver-
sations but not authorized to be
quoted by name.
On Capitol Hill, McConnell
said Americans at home would be
watching to see “which senators
make the patriotic decision” and
which “vote to shove aside veterans,
military families and vulnerable
children to hold the entire country
hostage... until we pass an immigra-
tion bill.”
“We can’t keep kicking the can
down the road,” said Schumer,
insisting on more urgency in talks
on immigration. “In another month,
we’ll be right back here, at this
moment, with the same web of
problems at our feet, in no better
position to solve them.”
The four-week measure would
have been the fourth stopgap
spending bill since the current
budget year started in October.
A pile of unfinished Capitol Hill
business has been on hold, first as
Republicans ironed out last fall’s tax
bill and now as Democrats insist on
progress on immigration. Talks on
a budget deal to ease tight spending
limits on both the Pentagon and
domestic agencies are on hold, as is
progress on a huge $80 billion-plus
disaster aid bill.
Before Thursday night’s House
approval, GOP leaders sweetened
the stopgap measure with legis-
lation to extend for six years a
popular health care program for
children from low-income families
and two-year delays in unpopular
“Obamacare” taxes on medical
devices and generous employ-
er-provided health plans.
A shutdown would be the first
since 2013, when tea party Repub-
licans — in a strategy not unlike the
one Schumer is employing now —
sought to use a must-pass funding
bill to try to force then-President
Barack Obama to delay implemen-
tation of his marquee health care
law.
At the time, Trump told Fox &
Friends that the ultimate blame for
a shutdown lies at the top. “I really
think the pressure is on the presi-
dent,” he said.
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