Democrats have no place to hide here,"

The blame game continued, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that the short-term fix wasn’t sufficient.
“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” Schumer said. “In another month, we’ll be right back here, at this moment, with the same web of problems at our feet, in no better position to solve them.”
The bill would keep the government funded through Feb. 16, and includes a six-year extension for the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP), but there is nothing in the bill bringing Democrats to the table.
For weeks, Democrats have pushed for language in a spending package that would protect some 700,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation. That language would move to be a renewal of the Obama-era Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which the Trump administration ended in September.
Republicans, on the other hand, are pushing for an increase in defense funding, with guidance from the White House for language that would apply stronger border security and begin construction of Trump’s paramount campaign promise – a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Democratic senators’ fixation on illegal immigration has already blocked us from making progress on long-term spending talks,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. “That same fixation has them threatening to filibuster funding for the government.”
And Republican sources said Schumer’s push to block the vote doesn’t make sense.
“They’re not going to vote to fund the government with a short-term CR just to put pressure on an issue that is already being negotiated, and that is not a real issue until March,” a source told Fox News.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, no current beneficiaries of the DACA program will be impacted before March 5, 2018.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Friday urged Democrats to “do what’s right.”
“Last night House Republicans votes for a bipartisan deal to keep the government open and protect our military, seniors, & children’s healthcare. Today Senate Democrats can join Republicans and do what’s right or shut down the government and hurt Americans who need it most,” Sanders tweeted early Friday.
The government shutdown looms on the eve of Trump’s one year anniversary as president of the United States.
A White House official told Fox News that the president will not go to Mar-a-Lago, as initially scheduled. 
“The President will not be going to Florida until the CR passes.”
Fox News’ Chad Pergram, John Roberts, Kristin Brown, Mike Emmanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.



Comments

Popular Posts