Mitch needs to do his damn job. President can get out his veto pen and show us his conviction. I would at least respect that even if I didn’t agree with it.
Are you seriously under the impression that the Senate can vote on expired bills from a House that is no longer in session?
Mitch will come around when the heat gets to be too much for him. He will then declare himself the savior. He’s done it before and he will do it again.
Of course you’re absolutely right but this pomp and circumstance is getting tiring. If they want a wall fine, but they should own up to that by putting that belief in an actual vote and be willing to own the shutdown.
A majority don’t want the wall, and a majority blame Trump for the shutdown.
Trump has no leverage.
Trump decided to draw attention to his lack of leverage and his unpopular stance by getting on his knees on live TV and begging Democrats to save his moronic self in a poorly executed Oval Office speech.
The best part of the night for Trump was the rebuttal by Schumer and Pelosi.
Trump is a bozo.
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Trump looked like a scared little man. I had some reservations, but I am now confident that if the Senate were to pass the House bill, he won’t veto. He’s too much of a coward to own the shutdown.
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Seems I heard this all before. Give me what I want and we can talk about what you want later. But we all know later will never come.
Seems in the 80’s we believed you when you said well give us amnesty and we’ll build a wall later. Well, the wall was never built. Maybe if the democrats wouldn’t have lied back than we wouldn’t have the problems at the border we have now.
If you care so much for all the government workers not getting a check all you have to do is call your representatives and tell then to fund the wall. People’s lives are being affected because of this Democrat government shutdown.
You think the democrats are saints in this. No, they are on record as saying we must hold firm we can’t give the Republicans a win this early; They could care less about the workers getting paid this is all about the election in 2020.
It’s all about the election in 2020 for both sides.
They need to stop acting like idiots and work out a compromise. But all I see is both sides running their mouths on tv.
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What are Republicans offering to give up in return for a wall?
It will be steel instead of concrete, as requested by the Democrats.
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i have zero idea who our president is actually getting advice from since i’m not in the White House. maybe it’s his kids maybe it’s someone else. maybe he’s winging it all by himself.
it needs to change. what he’s doing is abrasive and doesn’t work. i’m not sure he even realizes that he has to work with congress or that our founders designed this government to prevent one person from ruling.
bring in people who know that they’re doing and listen to them. it’s his only chance of being an effective administrator.
How about we stop making disingenuous arguments about the choices available?
That might be a good place to start, don’t you think?
IF we had decent leadership in both Houses of Congress, then Congress could go ahead and negotiate among themselves until they had a bill they could agree on and that would have enough votes to override a veto. Then, pass it and send it to Trump. If he vetoes it, override the veto. Problem solved.
Unfortunately, the leadership in Congress - particularly Mitch McConnel - doesn’t have the spine to do that.
Shut off the water… 
Shut it off!!
Shut it off!
Shut it off!
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I’d rather he not take that “advice.”
You don’t want a president who trusts and listens to his advisors? You think Trump is doing all the right things on this wall fight?
I took some time to think about this. What would have constituted a win for the President last night? The poll data shows that he is being held responsible for the shutdown (a bad position to be in) and that a substantial majority opposes building the wall. He has boxed himself in, because he started this fight (when he told Chuck and Nancy he would be proud to shut down the government) with no exit strategy than getting $5B – an amount that he has raised to about $6.5B. He has shown no appetite for compromise.
Trump could have gotten out of this box two ways last night. Either declare a National Emergency, which would probably have ended without the money after the courts overrule him, but would have ended the shutdown with Trump still fighting for the wall, or sway a majority to his side on both counts.
Trump failed on both counts last night. His speech was entirely recycled rhetoric larded with dubious assertions that suffered from the way it was delivered. Trump is better working a crowd; Trump on a teleprompter in an empty room is just not his strength. Trump draws energy from cheering crowds that he pumps into being more effective as an orator. Squinting away from the camera… bad form.
So far, three Republican Senators have pulled away from Trump on the shutdown. Meanwhile, the Democrats are holding firm, despite reports that Jared Kushner is roaming the halls of the Capital trying to find one Democratic Senator to flip. (Okay team, name one issue where Jared K. has been successful?) One earlier post here proposed the R’s flip Joe Manchin who is vulnerable in a red state. Manchin was just reelected despite a full court press by Donald Trump. He’s not going to flip when he has six years to go in his term.
The impact of the shutdown on the government employees who are not getting paid, on citizens who are not getting services and on the economy as a whole is just starting to be felt. While the administration is promising to mitigate the impact – pay tax refunds – for instance, there is no evidence that they will actually be able to deliver.
Given that the Republicans have no effective strategy to shift the blame for the shutdown to the Democrats and Trump failed to rally the public to his side last night, the pressure of the shutdown will fall in increasingly on the Republican Party.
Bills to fund specific parts of the government will start to pass in the house next week. These will have popular support.
The Republicans are going to force Trump to cave or they will go into the 2020 election owning a disaster for America of their own making. Expect the R’s to come up with an essentially meaningless compromise that they will pretend is saving face.
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Only win for Trump last night would have been declaring a national emergency. But that would have only appeased his base.
This is so simple…build the wall and simply understand that the divide will grow until “we” do.
A wasted half hour of my life.
Allan
