Readers react to my suggested counter-offer for the Democrats in the wake of President Trump’s feeble offer:
Agreed 100%. This, or something very similar, ought to be sent to (and read by) every Democrat in Congress.
I had not seriously considered sending that one off to my reps. Maybe I should. Aaaand done, McCollum, Klobuchar, Smith. Another:
The poor liberals under their lousy leadership can’t even come up with a responsible reason not to sit down and negotiate the situation. If they think their going to get the President to open the government before they settle the border situation they have some more bad news coming their way, The Trump hate train is slowly going off the tracks and just maybe things will get a little more positive as far as the press goes,
Let’s look at the situation objectively. What did President Trump do, or more properly what was he manipulated into doing? To borrow a phrase, he took the government hostage and demanded that he be given all $5.7 billion he had requested, or he wouldn’t sign any legislation. Not a reduced amount, not other offers, simply Gimme everything I want or I’ll pout and whine and whimper about it!
In his latest offer, he finally progressed a little beyond that, with a temporary 3 year extension of the right to stay in the United States for “Dreamers,” aka the DACA program . Unfortunately for him, SCOTUS did not choose to listen to his appeal of a lower court ruling that his remaindering of DACA was illegal, so that offer turns out to be nothing:
The Supreme Court is not likely to review during its current term the program that shields young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, leaving in place the Obama-era initiative that the Trump administration has tried to end.
The justices on Tuesday took no action on the administration’s request that it review the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has protected nearly 700,000 people brought to this country as children, commonly known as “dreamers.”
If the court sticks to its normal procedures, that would mean that even if it accepts the case as a later date, it would not be argued until the new term starting in October, with a decision likely in 2020. [WaPo]
It is quite plausible to state that the liberals, who have been the responsible financial guardians of the government for something like the last quarter century, have once again stepped up to the plate to safeguard government finances, which is to say, my readers’ tax-money. I have stated numerous times that it does not appear the wall would be effective in stopping illegal immigrants or drugs, while the $5B is really just the beginning, not the ending of such funding.
But on a more fundamental level, this use of government shutdowns really needs to stop. This one was brought on by a Republican President; the others by Republican Congress, all as demands for this, that, and the other thing. Rather than continuing to pursue irrational policies at the expense of the public, we need to step away from this nuclear weapon of an approach to policy making and return to sanity. This time the Democrats, the liberals, appear to be the sane ones, but I don’t put it past them to do the same thing in pursuit of a pet insanity of their own.
And I don’t like that idea.
So I think the Democrats, having pinned this rightfully on Trump, who helped them along by taking gleeful responsibility for a potential shutdown just prior to causing it, are going about it mostly right. Public polling, last I heard, agreed as more than half the electorate blames Trump and the Republicans, and does not want to fund any wall. I just ran across this from WaPo:
Recent polling indicates that the government shutdown has caused skittishness among parts of Trump’s base, which has been one of the most enduring strengths of his presidency. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey, conducted Jan. 10 to Jan. 13, found that his net approval rating had dropped seven points since December.
One of the biggest declines came among suburban men, whose approval rating of Trump fell a net 18 percentage points, while support from evangelicals and Republicans dipped by smaller margins. Among men without a college degree, the downward change was seven points.
We may be seeing the inevitable pendulum that comes from The grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Now that the Trump voters are beginning to suspect it’s all crab grass and poison ivy, they’re slipping away – at least those who aren’t too heavily emotionally invested in him.
Sure, Pelosi and Schumer, or other Democrats, could screw this up, but right now they have their spurs in Trump’s flanks fairly securely, and Trump is showing himself to be poor at flinging off riders when he’s not the one in a commanding position. Time will tell, but right now the smart money is on the Democrats, just as I’ve said before. Pelosi’s forgotten more about politics than Trump has ever learned.
