Senate Democrats are threatening a government shutdown over funding for President Trump’s wall on the Mexican border. The New York Times’s Alan Rappeport notices their hypocrisy:
Democrats pilloried Republicans for irresponsibly shutting down the government when Barack Obama was president, but as a minority party struggling to show resistance in the era of President Trump, they are now ready to let the lights of government go dark.
A group of prominent Senate Democrats on Monday raised the specter of a shutdown over the funding of President Trump’s proposed wall along the border with Mexico.
Republicans seemed to get the worst of it in the court of public opinion, though not with lasting consequences, when they induced a partial shut-down over Obamacare — an unpopular program that adversely affected the lives of millions of Americans. It seems likely that Democrats would fare poorly if they induced a shutdown over a wall that, though not popular, has a direct adverse impact only on non-Americans attempting to break American law.
Democrats can count on the mainstream media for support. However, if the paragraph from the Times quoted above is any indication, that support may be less than full-throated or, at a minimum, difficult to take seriously.
Trump’s promise to the build the wall represented a central plank in his campaign for the presidency. Shutting down the government in retaliation for the president trying to keep a major campaign promise seems politically problematic.
Democrats will harp on Trump’s promise that Mexico would pay for the wall. Trump will counter that the Mexicans will pay for it eventually, one way or the other. Many Americans probably will be skeptical, as they should be, but won’t believe that this talking point justifies a government shutdown.
My sense, for what little it’s worth, is that if there’s a government shut down, it won’t be over the wall.
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