Trump angers GOP over CHIP tweet, David Drucker explains the stakes involved
President Trump blew up Republican strategies to keep the government open past Friday when on Thursday morning he said a long-term extension of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program should not be part of a stopgap spending bill pending before the House.
“CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Jan. 18, 2018
With a possible government shutdown looming this weekend, the House had planned to vote late Thursday on a stopgap spending bill that would keep government funding flowing to Feb. 16 as delicate negotiations continue to protect young, undocumented immigrants brought illegally as children from deportation.
photo Kmccoy
Washington Examiner Senior Political Correspondent and CNN Political Analyst David Drucker spoke with Hugh Hewitt on his morning radio show predicting that a deal would be struck to avoid a shutdown: “I tend to think it won’t,” Drucker said when Hewitt asked if the government will shut down, explaining how “both sides have reasons why it’s less preferable than going to the mattresses” but it depends on “how worried the Democrats are that their base will be very angry with them cause they’re not going to get DACA fixed” and if the Republicans can “muster most of the votes.”
Drucker noted how the Democrats are just not going to go along and help the GOP.
Nearly every House Democrat signed a letter on Thursday proclaiming opposition to the Republican spending bill. Moreover, Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, whose constituents include hundreds of thousands of federal workers, announced together that they too would oppose the temporary spending bill.
“Congress should remain in session with no recess until we work out a long-term bipartisan budget deal that addresses all issues,” Warner and Kaine said in a joint statement.
White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah offered an upbeat prediction that the government would remain open.
“A minimal function of Congress is to fund the government,” Shah told reporters aboard Air Force One. “That is a very basic and fundamental duty.”
The short-term spending bill would keep the government open through Feb. 16 while extending a children’s health insurance program for six years and rolling back several taxes in the Affordable Care Act.
