Much of the coverage in the mainstream media of yesterday's meeting at the White House between President Trump and the Democrat congressional leaders focused on the President "error" of saying he would take credit for a government shutdown if it were required to get better funding for border security. It's amazing to me how wrong that coverage is. What the President did is not an error.
Trump knows that there isn't going to be a real government shutdown. First of all, over 80% of the government is already fully funded for the year because the GOP Congress passed all sorts of appropriations bills in the normal way. The biggest agency that is unfunded is the Department of Homeland Security. It's not going to shut down even if Congress doesn't pass a funding bill. The President gets to decide which government functions are "essential" and he can order funding for those to continue at current levels. (By the way, funding at current levels is what Chuck and Nancy offered as their solution yesterday.) Aside from hyperventilation by the media, the partial shutdown won't affect many people at all. Even the optics will be different this time. All those photo ops in the past of closed national parks also won't materialize since they're already funded.
More important, though, is the fact that America got to see Trump fighting for what he believes. He didn't pretend to be bipartisan before the cameras only to fight behind closed doors. He put the battle right out there for all to see. He is fighting for border security. That means that Chuck and Nancy are fighting against it. That's a very good message for most Americans to see.
Trump knows that there isn't going to be a real government shutdown. First of all, over 80% of the government is already fully funded for the year because the GOP Congress passed all sorts of appropriations bills in the normal way. The biggest agency that is unfunded is the Department of Homeland Security. It's not going to shut down even if Congress doesn't pass a funding bill. The President gets to decide which government functions are "essential" and he can order funding for those to continue at current levels. (By the way, funding at current levels is what Chuck and Nancy offered as their solution yesterday.) Aside from hyperventilation by the media, the partial shutdown won't affect many people at all. Even the optics will be different this time. All those photo ops in the past of closed national parks also won't materialize since they're already funded.
More important, though, is the fact that America got to see Trump fighting for what he believes. He didn't pretend to be bipartisan before the cameras only to fight behind closed doors. He put the battle right out there for all to see. He is fighting for border security. That means that Chuck and Nancy are fighting against it. That's a very good message for most Americans to see.
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