Words of Advice:





"Eck!" -- George the Cat

Sunday, January 27, 2019

DJT = Slow Learner

Two days after the record-long shutdown ended, the White House made clear Sunday that President Donald Trump is prepared to shutter the government again without a border wall deal from Congress.
The shutdown that ended last Friday got Trump nothing, other than signs of Republican defections in Congress and declining poll numbers. Given that Trump has said that he's willing to shut down the government again (ie, take the mantle of), it will only be die-hard Fox News addicts who will buy that Trump won't be responsible.

The lower his polling goes, the more likely it will be that he will draw a primary challenger.


bmq215 said...

I suspect that Congress may try to pass an anti-shutdown bill in the next couple weeks. Seems like such a thing would have a good chance of passing and statements like this from Trump only make it more likely.

If so, he'll find himself even more boxed in. Forced to chouse between caving permanently or going with the unpopular, legally convoluted, and potentially impeachable emergency declaration option.

Eck! said...

The biggest issue with the emergency option is time.

It has to first happen then all the court challenges followed by
time to get them worked through and by then his successor can
overturn the whole boat and stop the crap.

What's missed is if they gave him 5 billion right now the first
shovelful will not happen to early next year if at all. That
does not allow for all the court fights over eminent domain.
That assuming its not a states right or shooting battle.

And no matter if there is a wall fence or sign post people to
watch to see its not breached, jumped over, or dug under
are still required wall or no. So skip the wall and hire
people to watch the border.


CenterPuke88 said...

Bmq215, the anti-shutdown bill has, effectively, already passed. The OPM ruling, on Wednesday afternoon, on how the furlough and absences would be handled for excepted employees ruled in such a way that a shutdown of this length is very unlikely. While it provides penalties for unapproved absence, it also effectively means any excepted agency would be operating on minimium (or less) staffing.

bmq215 said...

CP, that's an interesting point. It certainly means that things would be run into the ground more quickly. However, a standoff that escalates faster is still a standoff. A sort of "permanent continuing resolution" would negate the brinksmanship altogether.

Paul W said...

It is growing unlikely trump will face a Primary challenger.

The RNC is passing some new rules to eliminate the caucuses, making it harder for challengers to win convention delegates https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rnc-push-undivided-support-trump-reelection-state-leaders/story?id=60603125.

The party - thanks to the base and to the Far Right media overlords - are all in with trump (even as that media attacks trump for failing with the Shutdown). If anything happens, it will likely be mass defections of elected GOP either flipping to Dem or going independent. But even THAT is unlikely because the GOP leadership are all cowards.