Government shutdown enters 3rd day amid shifting blame game

A US government shutdown will enter its third day on Monday as Senate negotiators failed to reach agreement late on Sunday to restore federal spending authority and deal with demands from Democrats that young “Dreamers” be protected from deportation.

Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group, said the Democratic strategy – to have Schumer coax Trump into a bipartisan deal, which the president would then sell to reluctant congressional Republicans – failed when Trump receded from public view and negotiations.

Democratic Senators are so exercised about their fate that they have been refusing to vote for new temporary Government funding measures until a deal on the dreamers has been reached, plunging the US Government into total shutdown (dubbed the #SchumerShutdown by the Republicans).

It was obvious over the weekend that Republicans felt more united than Democrats on the issue, with few of them feeling any pressure to buckle in the House or the Senate. The shutdown lasted 16 days and furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

Five Democratic senators voted to keep the government open by voting “yes”, while four Republicans voted ‘no.’ Still, the GOP needed bipartisan support to reach the vote threshold, regardless of the four GOP defections. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican – said he was now a yes.

Speaking on the floor, the top Senate Republican said he would push for a Monday vote on a short-term deal to fund the government through 8 February, as well as extend a popular health insurance program called Chip that provides healthcare coverage to nine million children for six years. It was rescinded by President Trump in September, and he instructed Congress to deal with it legislatively.

Amid uncertainty about whether federal employees should report to work in the morning, senators were set to vote at midday on a funding bill to get the lights back on in Washington and across the government until early February.

Meanwhile, McConnell said Schumer “took the extraordinary step” of preventing the legislation from passing and thus “plunging the country into this totally avoidable mess”.

The exception, available in limited situations, is the reconciliation procedure GOP leaders used on the tax and Obamacare repeal bills; otherwise, Senate passage requires 60 votes, and Republicans only have 51.

The shutdown took effect on Saturday on the one-year anniversary of the president’s inauguration, but the White House maintains that Trump came out the victor in the GOP’s standoff with Democrats.

The White House said Trump’s planned trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week was in flux because of the standoff on Capitol Hill.

Essential federal services and the military were operational Monday, but even active-duty troops will not be paid until a deal is formally sealed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged Sunday to take up legislation to address the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program if enough Democrats vote to re-open the government, and scheduled a key vote for noon Monday.

The former SC congressman is also a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, which could give him influence over conservative lawmakers in selling any compromise that emerges.

Schumer is also the chief Democratic negotiator, and had one-on-one talks with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.

McCarthy was seemingly reminding Trump that Republicans don’t support legislative protection for Dreamers without including provisions enhancing border security.

Republicans have appeared increasingly confident that Democrats were bearing the brunt of criticism for the shutdown and that they would ultimately buckle.

Markets have absorbed the shutdown drama over the past week. “I hope we can find a way to open the government back up and go about our business, and let the Senate legislate as it should”.

The White House emphasized that as well.

“I assure you we will have the vote at 1am on Monday, unless there is a desire to have it sooner”. “President Trump is so mercurial it’s been impossible to get him to agree to anything”.