It’s that time of year again…
If you’ve been keeping a close eye on the news, you’ve most likely noticed the national discussion about the prospect of Congress and the president failing to reach a deal to fund the government.
On Thursday, Republicans and Democrats announced they had reached a temporary deal to avoid a government shutdown with an end to the March 23rd temporary spending bill approaching.
It’s never easy to not have the federal government funding flowing, so it’s no wonder the White House has been involved in an ongoing battle to protect the President’s signature achievement, the building of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
We’ve already seen shutdowns start to follow; under both President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump. The Democratic-majority House tried to attach a DACA bill to last year’s funding bill, which ultimately failed. Many conservative Republicans felt it was an affront to President Trump.
The budget deal we just saw was obviously not a big deal for President Trump and the Republican Party, but from here on out the debt, government spending, and the issue of the wall is squarely in their sights.
President Trump has consistently said he will not support a legislative package that does not include funding for the wall. Last week, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he saw a “high probability” the president will remove his support to allow the vote to fail.
“I’m not saying he’ll ever take it off the table. … But there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll do that,” Gingrich said in an interview with Breitbart News.
The results of the presidential election last year and a lot of the talking points Republicans have discussed in recent weeks appear to carry a message to Republican lawmakers who are not sure if they can ultimately get their wall built.
Let’s not forget, the building of the southern border wall and immigrants are deeply personal for President Trump, so it stands to reason he would not like to see his campaign pledge fell through for the time being.
With this year’s midterm elections just weeks away, it’s likely Democrats will try to keep themselves relevant by trying to tie House Speaker Paul Ryan and others to President Trump.
Fox News White House Correspondent Chad Pergram is here to talk about the shutdown. Check out the video below: