House and Senate Pass Conflicting Spending Bills To Avert Government Shutdown

The Senate passed a spending bill last night that funds the government until February which gave President Trump nothing for his border wall:

“WASHINGTON — Moving to head off a looming government shutdown, the Senate passed a stopgap spending bill on Wednesday night that would keep the government funded through Feb. 8 — and would punt the impasse over a southern border wall to the new year and a divided Congress.

The bill, which quickly passed by voice vote after senators were corralled back to the chambers, was expected to pass the House on Thursday and be sent to President Trump before the midnight Friday deadline, when funding would lapse for nine federal departments.

The measure poses an uncomfortable political problem for Mr. Trump among his far-right supporters, even though it remained unclear if the president, who has been a volatile factor throughout the spending debate, would sign such a measure without the $5 billion he has demanded for a border wall. …”

After the Republican base exploded in outrage, Trump seems to have had a political near death experience and announced this afternoon that he would veto it. He also decided to take the GOP’s precious neocon foreign policy, which he ran against in the primary, and throw it in the garbage until he gets his wall funding. This is what prompted ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis to resign as Secretary of Defense.

The House whipped the votes to pass a spending bill with the wall funding:

“The House of Representatives Thursday approved a bill that would fund most of the federal government through early February — and provides $5.7 billion for President Trump’s long-promised border wall, increasing the chances of a partial government shutdown later this week.

Eight Republicans joined all 177 voting Democrats to oppose the measure, which passed 217-185. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is certain to fall short of the 60 votes needed for passage since the chamber’s 49 Democrats are against funding the wall. That, in turn, makes it more likely that parts of the federal government, including nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, will cease operations at midnight Friday.

The vote came hours after Trump told House GOP leaders that he would not enact a Senate-passed package that does not provide money for the barrier. …”

Thank you to our GREAT Republican Members of Congress for your VOTE to fund Border Security and the Wall. The final numbers were 217-185 and many have said that the enthusiasm was greater than they have ever seen before. So proud of you all. Now on to the Senate!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018

Half of the Republican Senate left Washington thinking the shutdown crisis was over. The pressure is now on Mitch McConnell to find some way to make this work. It will take a political miracle to thread this needle in the Senate (either McConnell will have to get 60 votes or kill the filibuster), but Trump seems poised to use his power to take his wrath out on the establishment in other areas until it happens.