With just over 24 hours before the government is set to shutdown, Donald Trump and congressional leaders from both parties emerged from a high-stakes White House meeting on Monday with no agreement, setting the stage for large swaths of the federal government to close after midnight Wednesday.
The impasse came after closed-door talks between the four top congressional leaders and Trump in the Oval Office, where lawmakers appeared to trade blame but make little progress towards a deal. “There are still large differences between us,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the meeting, claiming that Republicans refused to engage on their core demands around health care and restoring previous funding cuts.
“Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input,” he added, taking aim at a House-passed seven-week stopgap funding bill that Senate Democrats rejected last week. “That is never how we’ve done this before.”
In this case, not engaging would mean intentionally choosing to shut down a government that has services that directly impact those constituents. Meeting with them is the bare minimum of their job.
I can’t imagine Trump had any good faith negotiations so it’s a fool’s effort, but it’s their job to try, nonetheless.
They should be shutting down the government. Not doing so is a derelection of their duty to their constituents and the constitution. Shutting down the government prevents DJT from doing more damage. Its a way the can actually stop/ stem the bleeding while being in the minority, and it would also show them having some spine.
Going into any kind of negotiations with Trump is idiotic. Its not their job to keep giving Trump everything he needs to destroy the country.