On the 19th of January 2019, Jonathan Swan of Axios penned an exclusive report, detailing the Democratic Party leaders’ hard-line response before the republican President Donald Trumps had a chance to publicly deliver his 1/19/19 proposal to end the US 2019 longest running government shutdown in US history in exchange for $5.7 billion in funds for a border wall: Extend DACA protections for Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders.
Its important to note that while key republicans have been working for a few days on this proposal, at no time were Democratic Party leaders consulted. This makes it seem that republicans are more interested in playing political games than at arriving at a serious deal.
I suspect that the republicans’ tactics/ proposals are designed to appeal to moderates and independents whereby the Democratic leaders can be portrayed as being unreasonable and obstructionists.
In short, those who were involved in the crafting this GOP proposal while playing political games, as many Americans are suffering because of this long lasting 2019 US shutdown, they are playing a losing hand.
Here are excerpts from Jonathan Swan’s report, “Democrats dismiss Trump shutdown offer:”
“Even before President Trump’s shutdown remarks on Saturday (1/19/19), Democrats and aides on the Hill were dismissing his planned shutdown compromise offer as inadequate.
As first reported by Axios, Trump was expected to make two offers to Democrats in exchange for $5.7 billion in funds for a border wall: Extend DACA protections for Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders.”
“Half an hour before the speech, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement: “Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives.”
Gronda Morin 
I agree the democrats must stand strong and united against this deal. Several times already Democrats have agreed to this deal while it was pulled away from them at the last moment. Both the WH and McConnell do not want to give the DACA and any other immigrant anything. Hugs
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Dear Scottie,
I don’t think President Trump has any intent to craft a real proposal that stands a prayer of getting democrats on board.
There will be no deal unless he ends shutdown 1st, etc.
This was a political stunt, probably a deflection to all the womens’ marches that are being held around the USA. this is so sad as he continues to dump on 100s of 1000s of federal employees go without pay or have them delayed.
The president is one sick cruel monster.
Hugs, Gronda
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The “concessions” he has offered are not concessions in any way, and furthermore, if the Democrats were to agree, Donald Trump is not a ‘man’ of his word and cannot be trusted to honour his end of the agreement. What little tidbit he threw to the Democrats was but a crumb, and he was not in any way willing to back off the $5.7 BILLION demand for his abominable wall. Think about it … a MILLION dollars is more than most of us will earn in our lifetimes. A BILLION is 1,000 times more than a million! We cannot even conceive of such a sum, yet he bandies it about as if we should just sit down and shut up, as if it were naught but a week’s worth of groceries. Who repays that $5 BILLION??? We do! Me, you, our children, our grandchildren. And for what??? An EGO TRIP! Aaaaaarrrggghh. Mr. Michael Pence and the cabinet need to get their acts together, do what is right for this nation just for once, and declare this president unfit to govern under the 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Hugs!
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Dear Jill,
This stuff just drives us all crazy.
GOP think “we the people” don’t have a memory.
The GOP majority in both houses of Congress (3 out of 4 of them) questioned efficacy of President Trump’s wall. That is why the GOP lawmakers of his own party never approved funding for his wall beyond $1.6 billion dollars for yrs. 2017. 2018 and 2019. The allotted amount requested by President Trump in his own budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 was only for $1.6 billion dollars and this was published in Feb. 2018 , page 57.
Guess what the amount was that Senators had approved and voted on prior to December 18 when President Trump threw his hissy fit. It was for $1.6 billion dollars.
In 2017 President Trump wanted a shutdown. In 2018 he got a 3 day shutdown. In 2019, he finally got his history making shutdown.
The president wanted his shutdown, end of story.
In addition, his point man for this shutdown is the acting Chief-of-Staff Mick Mulvaney who is one of those small government zealots who thinks a long lasting shutdown is a good thing as it leads to making the government smaller.
If this guy wants to negotiate in good faith, he will end this shutdown, otherwise GOP are continuing to play political games at the expense of so many Americans who are suffering.
Speaker Pelosi cannot .accede to President’s demands otherwise every time there is a debt ceiling issue, etc. the president can force a shutdown as leverage to get his way. He has to be required to act first.
He’s playing games while Rome is burning.
Hugs, Gronda
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Yes, you hit the nail on the head … it is all a big game to him, with people’s lives being used as pawns. He knew that Pelosi and the democrats wouldn’t go for his “deal”, for it was no deal, it was no compromise, and he would have found a way to back out of the DACA protections anyway. He KNEW they wouldn’t go for it … he was merely playing to his ‘base’ once again, so he could say, “See, I tried.” And his base, fools that they are, will buy it, hook, line & sinker.
Hugs!
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Gronda, I would have preferred the Dems let the offer be made before rejecting. I recognize the President’s word does not amount too much, but it shows poor form to reject before it is offered. I would also prefer a counter rather than a no, but that is me. It could still be hard line, but reopen the government, work toward legislation to protect DACA and refugees (what Trump does by order, can be changed) and once done, you get your $5.7 for border security. Keith
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As always, Keith, your head is cooler and clearer than ours. But we all knew he wasn’t going to be willing to compromise on the $5.7 billion, and we also know his word is worth less than the ashes in my ash tray. Still, I have to agree 100% that a counter-proposal, rather than a simple “no” would have been the far better response. Sigh.
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Dear Jill and Keith,
When I first read about President Trump delivering a proposal to end the shutdown in exchange for funding for his wall at $5.7 billion dollars along with approving a more permanent fix for DACA and an extension of the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, I thought as you did.
I could have worked something out with the outline of his plan. I’m of the school of thought that that the construction for his wall would never get off the ground before he was long gone, and so I wouldn’t have sweat the $5.7 billion dollars. Eventually it could be reallocated to be used to better secure the border with new technology that could actually detect hidden drugs, human cargo, etc. There could be hiring for more immigration judges to better handle asylum claims.
But the DACA fix was only short term and the DACA Dreamers and others are already being protected by the courts and it looks like the Supreme Court justices are refusing to hear any of these immigration cases. This means that whatever the lower courts had decided would continue to be in force.
Personally, I had thought that I could even live with this as long as I got the government running asap. I would negotiate NOT to fund the wall until the president signed the Bridge Act because I don’t believe the GOP members in the US Congress would ever pass this Bridge Act in a million years. This is what tells me the president’s offer is not for real because he knows this too. The president and his cronies are playing games while Rome burns and the Democrats are simply refusing to play by their rules.
But, I would still sit there and agree to all of the above, only if the president would end the shutdown. But here’s the rub, he won’t do that which tells me again, that he’s not negotiating in good faith.
Then there has to be way to bar future government shutdowns, otherwise President Trump could resort to the shutdown, as a political tool over and over again to get his way. It just so happens that 9 US Senators have already crafted a bill to do just that.
Hugs, Gronda
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