It appears Trump has taken the Democrats to the 11th hour by making them think the fight over the budget would be all about the border wall. They may have taken the fake and not organized an effective assault on the budget. Dare I say Trump is skillfully navigating Washington’s budget realities?
.. The president is disappointing the Democrats who thought he’d be insistent, with no flexibility. Perhaps the Democrats are being played. Trump may have been bluffing all along to distract the left into thinking this budget battle would be all about the wall.
Five Key Questions as a Government Shutdown Looms
the Trump administration wants to use the deadline as a point of leverage that Democrats — and at least a few Republicans — do not believe they have, raising the prospects of a shutdown that had seemed unlikely.
.. “We expect a massive increase in military spending. We expect money for border security in this bill,” Mr. Priebus said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And it ought to be. Because the president won overwhelmingly. And everyone understands the border wall was part of it.”
.. some Democrats would plainly relish the political upside of a unified Republican government ushering in Mr. Trump’s 100th day by failing to keep the lights on.
.. Mr. Mulvaney has offered a trade of sorts: $1 of subsidy payments under the Affordable Care Act — paid to insurers to lower deductibles and other costs for low-income consumers who buy plans through the law’s marketplaces — in exchange for every $1 to pay for the border wall that the president wants to build.
.. When he ran for president, Mr. Trump presented himself as a champion of coal miners, promising to put them back to work.
.. a dispute over health benefits for retired miners who were set to lose their coverage.
Trump and his aides take hard line on border wall, as threat of government shutdown looms
Mulvaney has said that the administration is willing to negotiate with Democrats — funding insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in exchange for support for wall funding.
.. “The White House gambit to hold hostage health care for millions of Americans, in order to force American taxpayers to foot the bill for a wall that the President said would be paid for by Mexico is a complete non-starter,”
.. Further complicating matters for the White House, some Republicans in Congress say they don’t view wall funding as a must-have item in a short term spending bill.
.. Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to release a very general sketch of its tax reform plan this week, Mulvaney said.
“I think what are you going to see Wednesday is some specific governing principles, some guidance,” he said, explaining that the White House will not release specific legislative text. “Also some indications of what the rates are going to be.”
Asked whether the plan will be revenue-neutral, Mulvaney replied, “I don’t think we’ve decided that part yet.”
Trump’s Border Wall: A Tall Order
Installed fencing is scarce in the lower valley, in part because most of the land is either privately owned or is held by wildlife reserves.
.. The Trump administration’s budget proposal in late March included requests for 34 miles of additional fencing in this area: nearly $500 million for 28 miles of a new levee-wall system and another $146 million for 6 miles of other wall construction.