US & CANADA-WASHINGTON: TRUMP ADMIN – US govt shuts down pending budget deal
Shutdown forces closure of Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island
People who work at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island disembark from a ferry at Battery Park, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer/MANILA BULLETIN)
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WASHINGTON: The US government officially shut down on Saturday, the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, after lawmakers failed to agree on a stop-gap spending deal.
Senators were still negotiating on the Senate floor as the clock turned midnight, but Trump’s office issued a statement blaming opposition Democrats for the crisis.
Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the Democrats’ insistence that the interim measure include protection for undocumented immigrants who arrived as children killed the deal.
“Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown,” she declared, referring to the minority leader, New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who met with Trump earlier Friday.
“Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans.
“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” she warned.
US federal services and military operations deemed essential will continue, but thousands of government workers will be sent home without pay until the crisis is resolved.
Even serving soldiers will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.
Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell echoed the White House’s language, but Schumer fought back, blaming Trump for leading him to believe a deal was possible on the immigration dispute but then failing to bring his own party along.
Responsibility to govern
“Every American knows the Republican Party controls White House, the Senate, the House—it is their job to keep the government open. It is their job to work with us to move forward,” Schumer told the Senate, after the 50 to 49 vote.
“They control every ounce of the process and it is their responsibility to govern and here they have failed,” he declared.
Democrats accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump’s populist base by refusing to fund a program that protects 700,000 “Dreamers” —undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children —from deportation.
The president shelved plans to fly to Florida to celebrate at his Mar-a-Lago estate the first anniversary of his inauguration to remain in Washington to ride out the storm.
Republicans have a tenuous one-seat majority in the Senate but would have needed to lure some Democrats to their side to get a 60 vote supermajority to bring the motion forward. They fell ten votes short.
The measure brought to Congress would have extended federal funding until February 16 and reauthorized for six years a health insurance program for poor children—a long-time Democratic objective.
But it would have cut the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, that affects Dreamers.
White House officials insisted there was no urgency to fix DACA, which expires March 5.
With mid-term congressional elections looming later this year, Republicans risk being blamed by voters when the government stops functioning over lack of funds.
A new Washington Post/ABC poll found that 48 percent of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for a potential shutdown, and only 28 percent hold Democrats responsible.
There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.
International ratings agency Fitch said a partial shutdown was unlikely to affect America’s AAA/stable rating for US sovereign debt.
Negotiations with the White House on a bipartisan compromise on DACA blew up last week after Trump reportedly referred to African nations and Haiti as “shithole countries.”
Trump’s unpredictable Twitter outbursts and sudden changes of position also have bedeviled Republican leaders as they maneuver to cut a deal. AFP
COURTESY:
BY THE MANILA TIMES
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