Thanks to Politico, Full text: Trump’s shutdown offer to Dems
Here’s a good analysis as to why Dems are viewing the republican President Donald Trump’s 1/19/19 proposals to end the government shutdown as a non-starter…
On January 19, 2019, Dara Lind and Li Zhoa of VOX penned the following report, “Here’s Trump’s latest offer to end the shutdown-and why Democrats aren’t interested” (“The “deal” Trump is offering on immigration and DACA, explained.”)
Excerpts:
“President Donald Trump just blinked on the government shutdown. But his standoff with congressional Democrats doesn’t appear to be headed to a resolution anytime soon.”
“On Saturday, in remarks billed as a “major announcement” on the border and the shutdown, Trump proposed a deal to Democrats. He continues to insist that any bill to reopen the government include billions of dollars for a physical barrier on the US-Mexico border — a “wall” — but is now open to such a bill including other immigration provisions as well.”
“Most notably, he’s open to extending existing protections for the 700,000 or so immigrants currently protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who currently have legal status under Temporary Protected Status. The Trump administration has moved to sunset DACA, and to end protections for most of the immigrants covered under TPS. Both of those plans are currently held up in litigation.”
“Democrats aren’t particularly interested in what Trump’s proposing. “Democrats were not consulted on this and have rejected similar overtures previously,” a Democratic aide told Vox. “It’s clearly a non-serious product of negotiations amongst White House staff to try to clean up messes the president created in the first place. POTUS is holding more people hostage for his wall.”
“After weeks of all-or-nothing intransigence, Trump’s announcement Saturday indicates that the White House realizes they’re losing the shutdown in the eyes of most Americans, and are willing to compromise to reopen the government. But Democrats also know the White House is losing the shutdown, and the compromise now on offer is something they are unlikely to take.”
What Trump’s offering: $5.7 billion for the wall in exchange for extensions of existing protections for some immigrants
“Trump’s pitching this as a compromise: He wants the wall, Democrats want to help DACA and TPS recipients. But the deal isn’t the result of conversations with Democrats. It’s reportedly the result of discussions that Vice President Mike Pence and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner have had with congressional Republicans (most notably Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC))”
“And it shows. What Trump’s offering — temporary extensions of existing protections for both groups of immigrants — isn’t something that Democrats have been wildly enthusiastic about in the past. Furthermore, with Trump’s efforts to strip existing protections held up in court, it’s essentially a short extension of the status quo.”
“DACA recipients are currently being allowed to extend their protections for two years, just as they could under the Obama administration, while the administration fights in court to end the program. (People who don’t already have protections are no longer allowed to apply.) Without knowing when the Supreme Court will rule — or how the Trump administration will proceed if the Supreme Court agrees they can end DACA, since their original plan (issuing no renewals for expirations after March 2018) is obviously moot — it’s hard to say for sure that a three-year one-time extension will protect DACA recipients for longer than waiting for the Supreme Court.”
Here’s what he offered Saturday:
- “$5.7 billion in funding for a physical barrier on the US-Mexico border. Trump’s not budging on this. The White House has already “conceded” that the barrier will be made of steel poles — which is what experts and border agents wanted anyway — rather than solid concrete. Per a letter sent earlier this month, the administration could build 243 miles of barriers with the $5.7 billion it’s requesting, most of which would be built in the Rio Grande Valley.’
- “Three years of temporary protections for DACA recipients. On DACA, Trump is embracing a version of Graham’s BRIDGE Act, which would extend DACA recipients’ existing deportation protections and work permits for three more years. (The original BRIDGE Act applied also to immigrants who were eligible for DACA but not currently protected.) In theory, Congress would use that time to work out a permanent solution for DREAMers; but the last time the White House tried that, by giving Congress six months to address DACA before sunsetting it entirely, the gambit did not succeed. During that debate in late 2017 and early 2018, many Republicans gravitated toward bills that would offer DREAMers access to permanent legal status and ultimately to citizenship — a more moderate approach than what Trump is offering now.”
- A three-year extension of protections for TPS holders. Trump is also offering to extend ( for three years as well) the legal protections that hundreds of thousands of immigrants have under the Temporary Protected Status program — which is supposed to allow people to stay in the US while their countries recover from war or natural disasters, but which, over the years, has allowed many people to stay and put down roots in the US. TPS, unlike DACA, grants official legal status, but it doesn’t offer any way to apply for a green card or citizenship. Trump’s efforts to end TPS for most countries are held up in a different court fight — so this proposal, like the DACA proposal, would essentially be a legislative extension of the current judicially-imposed status quo.
- $800 million to improve care for children and families at the border — with millions more for enforcement. The rest of Trump’s proposal is a modified version of what the White House originally floated to Democrats in negotiations two weeks ago, codified in a letter sent by the Office of Management and Budget. Those demands include $800 million to deal with the actually-urgent humanitarian crisis at the US/Mexico border — the fact that unprecedented numbers of children and families are coming to the US (often to seek asylum) and border agents aren’t equipped to deal with them. Trump’s also demanding 2,750 more border agents and other law enforcement officials; millions of dollars in screening technology to detect drugs at ports of entry; and the hiring of 75 new immigration judges to address the immigration-court backlog, which is currently the biggest barrier to deporting people quickly (and which the current shutdown has exacerbated).
- Modest changes to asylum for Central American children and teenagers. The Trump administration is floating allowing Central American children and teenagers to apply for asylum in their home countries — a modification of an Obama-administration program Trump ended in 2017. In return, they want to change current law to eliminate automatic court hearings for children and teens who come to the US from Central America and other countries — making it much easier to summarily deport them.
Trump is in a weakening position on the shutdown — and on immigration
“Trump could have proposed this deal at any time since before the government shut down; Graham has been pushing it for weeks. But as recently as Wednesday, Trump was telling reporters that he was waiting for Democrats to come back to the table to negotiate. And as recently as last week, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters that the president was firmly opposed, in particular, to any wall deal that addressed the DACA issue”.
Link to entire report: Here’s Trump’s latest offer to end the shutdown — and why Democrats …
Gronda Morin 
Hello Gronda. Simply put the republicans do not want any immigration , want the ability to deport all immigrants regardless of age or status, and want to trade scraps for a whole meal. I agree this is not acceptable. The republicans seem to not understand we are part of an international community, and like it or not we can not stay shut up in our home alone. Hugs
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Dear Scottie,
You’ve got the picture.
The president’s base are now comprised of anti-immigration / racist leaning folks, Evangelicals who harbor antipathy towards LGBTQ AND transgender groups. Both these factions support his wall and anti-immigration rhetoric.
Then there are the rich corporate business folks who care nothing about any of this as long as they get their tax cuts, deregulation orders, etc. Many of these folks could give a hoot about the suffering of hardworking federal personnel going without pay/ or having their paychecks delayed.
They’ll start caring when the US economy starts to take a serious hit because of it.
But in the business community, there is a split as most executives recognize the benefits of increasing legal immigration and many support fixing the plight of the DACA DREAMERS.
However a lot of the presidents’s staff like Stephen Miller are opposed to even legal immigration.
The other split in the business community has to do with the president resorting to tariffs which sparks trade wars.
But there are some small government hardliners and one of them is the president’s point man on the current government shutdown, the chief-of staff Mike Mulvaney. These guys look at the shutdown as a plus because it could lead to smaller government.
Hugs, Gronda
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Hello Gronda. I agree. But on the small government idea, they love the idea of these people working without pay. I do not see how this is legal. They keep calling more people back in claiming they are essential, but all they really want is for no one to experience any hurt from the shut down, other than those not getting paid. Sounds like slavery to me, all being done to keep the white house poll numbers from tanking. Hugs
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We are still waiting for his tax returns. This administration has also walked back on Russian sanctions… why should anyone believe the shut-down will end until he shows good faith negotiating by providing a bridge to end shutdown while negotiating. Bottomline DJT thinks this is like TV and doesn’t care about the average American trying to keep his or her family with a roof over their head and food on the table.
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Dear Lindi Roze,
It’s extremely difficult to negotiate with a president whose idea of a deal is, I WIN/ YOU LOSE.
Sen McConnell wants to shift blame for this government shutdown on Dems by bringing up the President’s Bridge Act which ends the shutdown to be voted on the Senate floor, this upcoming week of January 22, 2019.
He can’t pass it without 7 democratic senators joining their GOP colleagues. I’m not sure he can get all GOP senators to back this bill. The chances of the president’s bill being passed in the house is just about nil because it won’t even have the support of the ‘Freedom Caucus’ GOP members/ the Tea Party crowd.
We’ll see what happens.
Hugs, Gronda
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trump on TV making a campaign speech to his followers is not a negotiation offer but an attempt to use public opinion to manipulate the country and appeal to his supporters. In order to negotiate you have to directly interect with the people with whom you are negotiating. Interact is a key word, not telling, not tweeting, not standing up onTV with a TV audience but face to face with people who will make the decisions.
if trump were serious to negotiate in good faith, he would meet in private with Democrats, have a comprehensive position which he can state verbally, have discusssion and find places where there can be sincere compromise.
But as the history of trump has shown, he has no negotiation skills, and his skills of lynig, bullying, threatening, making vile personal attacks on people with achievements he will never have, and making deals on which he reneges, are not the skills of successful good faith negotiators.
Democrats gave trump the opportunity twice, both times from the beginning trump did not have a sincere intention to negotiate in good faith but he used it as he used his TV show, a PR opportunity to rant and have a tantrum like a three year old, i.e. to appeal his supporters
Congress needs to pass a clean bill with no funding for the wall, tell trump if he vetos it, then Congress will override his veto, And Congress needs to very clearly tell trump he is never again to use a terrorist tactic such as attacking Americans and holding them as financial hostages.
Congress should be ready to do this because trump used a terrorist tactic to harm the people of the United States, and if not specifically told to not to do this again, he will continue to do it.
Still to trump supporters this is what makes a strong leader.
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That is true that congress should pass a bill and over ride the veto, but the two parties will not even speak up each other. They are a long way from coming up with a plan that two thirds of each chamber will agree one a long way.
Trump asked Nsncy how much dhe would agree to budget for the wall if he agree to do what dhe asked for. She said not anything. If she and Chuck will not give up an inch then that leaves it up to congress and the veto.
I urge everyone to vonact their congressmen and urge that they compromise with the other party and act.
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Dear OG,
Any good negotiator would have taken whatever Speaker Pelosi said with a grain of salt but would have continued to talk to get a better feel for what might work. No good salesperson worth his/ her salt is going to be stopped by the word “NO” or they’d lose their jobs faster than a speeding bullet.
The president is supposed to be an expert negotiator but he’s not living up to this reputation. What his response told me was that he’s the one who did not want to deal. He was wanting to do this shutdown. He set her up for a no, she complied and then he was gone. He was never serious.
This does not mean that Speaker Pelosi doesn’t present a counter offer to the president’s proposal that he presented on 1/19/19.
Hugs, Gronda
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She rejected the offer he made Saturday in advance snd has made no counter offer. Just crickets from her and Chuck. Reasonable congressmen will have to step forward and reach a compromise.
We are not dealing with what is supposed to be, we are dealing with what is.
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Dear OG,
There are reasons she outright rejected President Trump’s proposals. One was due to fact that she and other Democratic Party leaders were not included in any discussions regarding his plans that he announced on 1/19/19.. This tells her that GOP leadership in the US Congress were trying to do an end run around her.
My thinking is that If his proposals didn’t include the immediate ending to this 2019 government shutdown, this is not a deal being done in good faith. If she gives in to his demands, the president can hold American federal workers as hostage, over and over again every time he has a hissy fit about not getting his way. Everyone knows that you don’t pay off a blackmailer or a hostage taker just one time. That doesn’t mean that negotiations won’t happen.
The chances of that Bridge Act passing both Houses of the US Congress is like me winning the lottery. I’m of the school to let the Senate Majority Leader McConnell bring this bill to the Senate Floor to be voted on this week of 1/22/19 as he has been instructed to do by his boss, President Trump.
When this plan blows up, as I strongly suspect will happen, then maybe President Trump will get serious about negotiating a deal. And yes, I’d love to be wrong about all of this, but both houses have not been able to pass any serious legislation pertaining to immigration in over a decade, and so, I’m not holding my breath.
Eventually, Speaker Pelosi will have to present a counter offer but it would be wise of her not to base it on the Bridge Act being passed and signed by the president.. Whoever drafted this proposal was very naive about how this plan would be executed.
Dems in US Congress are acting in unison. But that doesn’t mean that negotiations will not happen. The priority has to be end this shutdown asap that’s for real and serious. But the president did act and in doing so, he opened the door to possibilities. Still, he has to be made to get that he cannot work around the leader Speaker Pelosi to undercut her and the other Democratic leaders in the US Congress, and that the chances for the Bridge Act actually being passed into law, is a long shot. It’s a start. I’m praying that his overture will start the process to end the shutdown asap.
Hugs, Gronda
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Its beyond me why anyone thinks trump is a “successful negotiator,” his whole history is one bad deal after the other and then trump sending in his lawyers to to deal with the mess. His tv show presented him just like we see him now, his basic people skills are lying, threatening, bullying and tweeting personal insults at people. By 2000 no US banks would loan trump money because banks decided trusted could not be trusted—this at a time when almost anyone who walked in the door without dying could get a loan.
Secondly there is no offer from trump, a tv show with trump making a campaign speech is not an offer. trump met twice with Nancy Pelosi , I guess he thought if he acted like a three year old it might arouse her “mother instinct. ”
trump is scared of Pelosi, he is afraid to negotiate with her, and now he hides behind McConnell’s skirts. She is not at all obligated to make a “counter offer” until trump sits across the table and makes an offer to her, which he has not yet done.
Instead he runs to McConnell crying like a baby and McConnell says “you do not have be an adult, hide behind me and we will lie and bully our way forward.” Maybe McConnell thinks trump is going to like him better,
but how can McConnell compete with Kim Jong un, who last week sent trump a letter in which he addressed trump four time as “Your Excellency” and trump is proudly carrying the letter around. Kim is willing to kill everyone in the USA , how would McConnell ever compete with that.?
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Steve Naegele,
Dealing with President Trump can be an exercise designed to frustrate the most skilled negotiators, but unfortunately, he’s the only game in town as the US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to let the senators vote on any bill to end this 2019 government shutdown. Where the senators to vote, the shutdown would end immediately with probably enough votes to override a presidential veto.
Nine republican senators have crafted a law to end the possibility of future shutdowns which is a signal that there are republican as well as democratic senators who want to end this shutdown.
The history of the president wanting to force a government shutdown over inadequate funding for his wall is telling.
In 2017, 2018 there were Republican Party majorities in both houses of the US Congress where 3 out of 4 Republican Party members discounted efficacy of wall. This is why they had never voted for a budget more than $1.6 billion dollars for the president’s wall.
In Feb 2018, President Trump’s administration’s own budget was published for the fiscal yr. 2019 where on pg 57, the amount of $1.6 billion is allotted for the president’s border wall. On Dec. 18. 2019, the US senators with the president’s prior approval, passed a funding bill which included this $1.6 billion before he decided to throw a hissy fit to gum up the works. Based on some negative feedback from right wing media pundits, he decided to demand $5.7 billion dollars before he would agree to sign onto this budget. He wanted to cater to the anti-immigration hard-liners’ faction of his base. While they are a minority of the US population, they are a significant portion of the Republican Party’s base of voters.
President Trump had wanted his shutdown in 2017. In 2018 he got a 3 day shutdown where the Democratic Party lawmakers were pushing for a way to bar the deportation of about 700,000 young adults who had come to the USA with undocumented parents to where they knew no other country. The former Democratic President Barack Obama had issued an order termed DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals), to block their deportation. President Trump had backed out on working with democrats on a law called the Dream Act, to permanently protect these young peoples from being deported. The Democratic Party lawmakers agreed to end the 3-day 2018 weekend shutdown with the promise by republicans that serious negotiations would continue regarding these young adults which went nowhere. Fortunately, the US courts stepped in to bar President Trump from being able to deport them.
But in 2019 President Trump finally got his record breaking government shutdown, surpassing the US past record of 21 days with no end in eight. That he’s been wanting a shutdown over his wall being inadequately funded by US Congress in 2017, 2018 , when Republican Party legislators were in the majority position in both houses of the US Congress, is NO SECRET. But he had been talked out of it, as he was told that it would be republicans who would be blamed by the American voters. Even then, the Republican Party Congressional members had never budgeted for more than $1.6 billion dollars for his wall.
But in 2019, President Trump had miscalculated that he could shift the blame for his government shutdown to the democrats who were now in the majority position in the the lower house (US House of Representatives) DEMS, to where he could demand $5.7 billion for his wall that even his own party members would not agree to in 2017, 2018, when they were in the majority beyond the amount of $1.6 billion dollars.
To add salt to injury, President Trump’s point man on this government shutdown, his Chief-of-Staff Mick Mulvaney is one of those small government zealots who’s not opposed to this shutdown lasting as long as possible because that could lead to the development of a smaller government. In addition, he had been one of the lawmakers who had pushed for the 16 day shutdown in 2013.
All of this brouhaha over the wall is based on the president falsely alleging that there is a US national security crisis at the US SW border where criminals, jihadists are crossing the US Southern border in huge numbers which justifies his demand for additional funds which would build about 200 miles of a wall which falls short of the 700 plus miles that he’s been describing to his supporters..
Now, it is true that there is a humanitarian crisis at the border because of the president’s own doing.
This is the history of what the Democratic Party leaders have to face while trying to act / negotiate to end this government shutdown asap, as it is harming so many Americans. Giving into the president’s unreasonable demands would make the US federal government employees vulnerable to government shutdowns, over and over again, every time President Trump threw another hissy fit.
But try, they must as the goal should be to end the hurt being felt by so many public servants who are being deprived of their paychecks or having them delayed versus the the need to give President Trump a black eye, no matter how much he deserves it.
Hugs, Gronda
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totally agree with your assessment. Love the clean bill without the wall and take it from there.
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