A bill intended to give funding to the federal government of the United States for the coming weeks did not receive the required minimum 60 votes to pass it. The deadline to vote passed on midnight Friday and led to the current federal government shutdown of services.
Following the shutdown, President Donald Trump accused the Democrats of putting politics above the needs and interests of the American people. In the same fashion, the Democrats blame him for going contrary to the agreed bipartisan compromise proposal. The two houses of Congress decided to continue negotiations on Saturday.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said that the chamber would be back in session on Sunday to try and put an end to the ongoing feud and government shutdown. The White House budget Chief expressed hopefulness that a solution will be found before the Monday. The consequences of this not happening are hundreds of thousands of federal employees facing the prospect of no work and even worse, being furloughed (forced into a leave of absence from work).
President Donald Trump took to Twitter to comment on the current situation. He said that the Democrats are far more concerned with illegal immigrants than they are with the US military and safety along the dangerous Southern Border.
Why can’t the Democrats and Republicans agree?
Friday’s Senate vote ended at 50-49. This fell short of the 60 needed to advance the bill. The Republicans have a 51-seat majority I the Senate. Hence they required some support from the Democrats to pass the bill. The bill would give funding for border security and increase military spending. The Democrats demanded the protection from deportation of more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children. Although the Republicans threw in a sweetener in the form of a 6-year extension to a health insurance program for children in low-income families, the Democrats wanted the program permanently extended.
After the bill did not pass, Trump blamed it on the Democrats, saying they were focusing on illegal immigrants instead of the military and safety of the Southern Border. In opposition, leading Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer blamed the president saying that Trump was under pressure from “hard-right forces within the administration.”
The winner in this blame game is yet to be decided. It seems that this could become a protracted, ugly fight.
