President Trump made his announced remarks from the White House, and as expected he pitched a compromise for the on-going government shutdown.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59rW3-4ejuY&w=560&h=315]
There is almost nothing new in the proposal, and indeed most of it remixes the long-running immigration and DACA debate that also shut down the government in January 2018. That shutdown ended on the promise of a floor vote on immigration, and the White House fought and defeated a proposal for $25B for border security in exchange for citizenship pathways for some of the “dreamers” among other things in the senate. Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi say the proposal is a non-starter:
“It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter,” Pelosi continued in the statement. “For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS recipients that our country needs and supports,” Pelosi said, referring to Temporary Protected Status designations.
Pelosi also said that House Democrats would pass a package of “six bills agreed to by House and Senate negotiators and other legislation to re-open government so that we can fully negotiate on border security proposals.”
Meanwhile in the Republican-controlled Senate, Leader Mitch McConnell says he will advance the proposal:
“Everyone has made their point—now it’s time to make a law. I intend to move to this legislation this week. With bipartisan cooperation, the Senate can send a bill to the House quickly so that they can take action as well. The situation for furloughed employees isn’t getting any brighter and the crisis at the border isn’t improved by show votes. But the President’s plan is a path toward addressing both issues quickly.”
Apparently this week will bring congressional drama over legislation that will be mutually blocked by the opposing chamber. Lather, rinse, repeat, and the shutdown drama continues without an end in sight.
I heard some Democratic congresswoman on CNN saying that we can’t negotiate while the government is closed. The interviewer asked everything except the most obvious question: why not? It’s like the cop show cliche of “put down your gun and we’ll talk”.
On a semi-related topic, how long has it been since anyone turned on CNN and watched willingly? If it weren’t for malls and airports, a tree could fall on CNN and no one would hear it.Report
CNN headline news would report on the tree falling on CNN.
Shutting down the gov as part of negotiating is massively dysfunctional. It puts gov employees and their hardship as bargaining chips. As a few talking heads have said fed workers are D’s so why do R’s care. Reasonable negotiating should not depend on how popular Fed workers are or how they can be demonized. It makes various basic functions of gov hostage to policy disagreements. The entire thing is a clusterfork and has no part in a sensible way to run a country.Report
DACA — Should we deport Americans to countries where they have no ties and don’t speak the language? Ok, but what if they have dark skins?Report
So having ties and speaking the language is important, you say?Report
I’m not a stickler for formal dress.Report
This comment is nowhere near as biting as I think that you intend it to be. Language skills aren’t a real hindrance to immigrant assimilation and most immigrants already have fairly extensive ties in America before they even get there.
There is really only one big hindrance to assimilation and that’s white supremacy.Report
Then why did Asians assimilate quicker than Irish? Why are Nigerians outpacing native white Pennsylvanians?Report
Asians didn’t assimilate quicker than the Irish. Despite anti-Catholicism and latent anti-Irish prejudices, the Irish were able to wield political power very fast after the started to immigrate to Americans in large numbers. More than any other immigrant group. They even took the lead in the build up to the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Another interesting fact is that it took the Germans longer to assimilate than any other immigrant group. They were very insistent on maintaining their language and culture through the generations. It took the First World War and Prohibition to get them into the American mainstream.Report
You missed the Micheals ‘dark skin ‘ reference. As if dark skin folks won’t have issues with liberals ‘diversity’ thing.
https://youtu.be/TLAlCuv_srYReport
Also, apparently all illegal immigrants have dark skin.Report
Right, ICE is targeting blue-eyed blonde veterans with Swedish names.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/686188335/ice-tried-to-deport-this-u-s-citizen-and-marine-veteranReport
Hey, an anecdote! That proves that all Hispanics are dark-skinned, and ICE only cares about Hispanics.Report
Hey, ICE tried to deport an American citizen based on his “seeming foreign”. That’s a totally legitimate function of government.Report
Meh, Obama assassinated what, four? US citizens because they looked like foreigners. These guys are pikers…Report
“Americans”?Report
People who grew up in the US and identify as Americans are Americans. People who were born in the US and identify as Confederates I’m less sure of.Report
Really? Even Wikipedia disagrees.
“Americans are nationals and citizens of the United States of America.”Report
Having dealt with DACA kids as an immigration lawyer, they might not be Americans in a legal sense but they are definitely Americans in a cultural sense. There are not for profits in their countries of citizenship that help them get used to life in their new country.Report
Geez Trump is a wuss, he shouldn’t offer anything for 11 months.Report
Resident immigration lawyer here, Trump’s proposed compromise is basically an offer for nothing. His administration’s attempts to eliminate DACA have been tied up in the courts, so stating that there will be a three year extension for DACA/TPS in exchange for 5.7 billion dollars for the border wall boondoggle is an escalation of demands for nothing. What might work is an amnesty bill for every undocumented alien or at least give the DACA kids LPR status but that would be too much for his base to bear.Report
McConnell says he will introduce bills on Monday. Will be interested to see if they put force of law behind Trump’s promises.Report
From a Democratic stand point, and McConnell’s bills need to pass the Democratic dominated House, Trump’s promise is a non-offer because it is nothing. It doesn’t matter if Trump’s promise is given force of law. Its not good enough to begin with.Report
Not only what you said, but we got here because Trump changed his mind last December and vetoed a bill that had passed both chambers with his assurance that he would sign it.
So color me less than impressed with something being “put into writing”. This is the sort of guy who ambushes you with new clauses and new costs when you show up to close escrow.Report
Exactly, so the Bill passes both houses and goes to Trump but then Ann Coulter tweets about amnesty and Trump vetos the bill. Trump’s MAGA base and the right-wing media really want every undocumented alien removed from the United States. Even a three year DACA extension will be too much for them.Report
MattY sums up my views on our current national nightmare:
This is true of Republican President Donald Trump as well. He doesn’t want The Wall, he wants the Fight Over The Wall.Report
Trump enjoys the fight, and wants the wall. He’s in campaign mode now, and he knows that his base loves it when he fights, and he believes (rightly so, I think) that his base will judge him harshly if he doesn’t get the wall. The average Republican might not support the wall, or not believe that the wall is the most important thing in the world, but there’s no benefit in them turning on Trump on this.
Actually, everyone’s behaving rationally and constitutionally. D’s and R’s, Trump and his base, everyone really, has concluded that this particular battle has to be won.Report
If Trump sincerely wanted funding for the wall as more than merely a political prop, he could have – wait, change that, he *would* have – demanded that McConnell introduce wall funding legislation back when Rs controlled the House.Report
My theory is that he’s enjoyed being President Trump, but since about October or so he’s gone back to being Candidate Trump. If I’m right, things are only going to get pettier and more Twittery.Report
Agreed. Things will get worse from here. No doubt about it.Report