Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are forced to eat crow over their refusal to negotiate with President Donald Trump on his border wall. When Pelosi and Schumer met with Trump at the White House Dec. 11, they laughed in his face over his request for cash to complete improvements on the nation’s southern border barrier with Mexico. Smirking with delight at Trump, Pelosi and Schumer found out what happens when hubris eclipses common sense. Instead of negotiating with Trump to avert a partial government shutdown, Trump took his leverage, partially shutting down the federal government midnight Dec. 22. Pumped up after the Nov. 8 Midterms elections taking over the House of Representatives, Pelosi and Schumer thought they had a license of humiliate Trump and play politics.
In his Christmas greeting today, Trump laid out the simple formula for reopening the government. “I can’t tell you when the government is going to open,” Trump said. “I can tell you it’s not going to open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they want to call it,” telling Pelosi and Schumer to get off their high horses and come to the table. Newly minted White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney already told Pelosi and Schumer that Trump’s willing to negotiate off from his $5.7 billion demand for border wall funding. If Democrats meet Trump halfway or even a little less, he’ll sign the continuing budget resolution to fund the government. When lawmakers return to Washington Thursday, Dec. 27, Pelosi and Schumer will be forced to make a deal or endure the political fallout from keeping the government closed. Trump’s shown a willingness to negotiate a deal on border security.
Trump’s as serious as a heart attack about procuring at least $2 billion in border security funding, refusing to budge on the budget resolution until Pelosi and Schumer give in. Both celebrated to soon Dec. 11, laughing in Trump’s face, denying him any cash for his border wall project. Now that there’s no resolution without a compromise, both will look incompetent giving Trump part of what he wants. “It’s a barrier from people pouring into our country,” Trump said. “It’s a barrier from drugs,” appealing to the vast numbers of citizens that agree that something must be done to improve security on the Mexican border. Boxing themselves into a corner, Pelosi and Schumer don’t have the votes in the Senate to pass legislation to reopen the government without giving Trump at least a few billion in border funding. Trump held the right cards with Pelosi and Schumer forced to fold in the end.
Using the government shutdown to score political points on Trump has backfired, now forcing Democrats to negotiate their way out of the debacle. Had they offered Trump $2 billion Friday, Dec. 28, they would have avoided completely the government shutdown. Now that real lives are impacted by the shutdown, only good faith negotiation can end the crisis. Wall Street expressed its displeasure with the partisan bickering dropping the Dow Jones Industrials another 653 points in bear territory. Whatever else weighs on the economy, including trade wars and rising interest rates, Pelosi and Schumer can end one level of uncertainty by compromising with Trump and ending the government shutdown. If the shutdown continues, it’s doubtful Wall Street can pull itself out of its current nosedive. Global economic conditions require U.S. lawmakers to act more responsibly.
Democrats haven’t woken up to the reality that they’ve lost the border wall battle with Trump. Whether they admit it or not, when they return Thursday to Capitol Hill, Democrats have to negotiate and end to the stalemate. “President wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it,” said Congressional Democrats, not facing the music that they’re in a bind, forced to compromise on the border wall. Saying the parties remained “very far apart,” Schumer hasn’t admitted defeat, something that comes Thursday with Democrats facing the music that they must cough up at least $2 billion to end the shutdown. Schumer won’t be talking so tough when lawmakers return to the Hill on Thursday. Faced with an indefinite stalemate, it’s a complete loser to not give Trump the paltry sum to end the government shutdown. Any continuation past Thursday will hurt Democrats.
Forced to eat crow, Pelosi and Schumer won’t have the last laugh on border security funding. Painted into a corner, they blew their negotiating position by trying to humiliate the president Dec. 11 in the White House. Unable to see Trump holds the cards with the continuing budget resolution, they overestimated their power, now forced to walk back their outright refusal to negotiate with the president. “It a disgrace what’s happening in our country, but other that that I wish everybody a very Merry Christmas,” Trump said. No reasonable American, certainly not some 800,000 government workers, wants federal government employment used as a political football. With simple negotiation required to end the shutdown, Pelosi and Schumer will face enormous pressure come Thursday to compromise or face the negative fallout of public opinion turning against them.
