TEHRAN, Jan 1 - US President Donald trump has blasted Democrats in the House of Representatives for excluding his border wall from their proposal to end the partial shutdown of the government.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The shutdown began 10 days ago, after Democrat and Republican lawmakers failed to agree on a spending bill that included $5 billion for the wall on the border with Mexico.
Responding to reports of a Democratic package of bills that would re-open the federal government without giving him the wall, Trump said Tuesday that he would accept no alternative offers.
“The Democrats will probably submit a Bill, being cute as always, which gives everything away but gives NOTHING to Border Security, namely the Wall. You see, without the Wall there can be no Border Security - the Tech “stuff” is just, by comparison, meaningless bells & whistles,” the president wrote in the first tweet after his New Year message.
“Remember this. Throughout the ages some things NEVER get better and NEVER change. You have Walls and you have Wheels. It was ALWAYS that way and it will ALWAYS be that way! Please explain to the Democrats that there can NEVER be a replacement for a good old fashioned WALL!,” he added in another post.
The Democratic initiative, which was filed on Monday and could be up for vote as soon as the House reconvenes on Thursday, would not provide the $5 billion Trump has demanded for his border wall.
Instead, it would continue to give the Department of Homeland Security $1.3 billion for border fencing, plus an extra $300 million for other border security items, including cameras, until February 8.
The two-part package would also set aside nearly $265 billion to fund the other shuttered federal agencies until September 30, 2019-- the end of the current fiscal year.
“While President Trump drags the nation into Week Two of the Trump Shutdown and sits in the White House and tweets, without offering any plan that can pass both chambers of Congress, Democrats are taking action to lead our country out of this mess,” Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.
If approved in the House – which is now controlled by the Democrats-- the funding package would go to the Republican-led Senate, where it doesn’t stand a chance to pass unless Trump changes his mind.
“It’s simple: The Senate is not going to send something to the president that he won’t sign,” said a spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Mexico will pay, Trump insists
Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign revolved around the idea of the wall, which he pledged Mexico would pay for.
Trump repeated that pledge in a separate tweet on Tuesday, saying Mexico would pay the money through the USMCA, his alternative for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between th US, Canada and Mexico.
Source: Presstv
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