In the dispute over the US budget and a new wall to the border of Mexico, the demo cards risk the showdown with Donald Trump. If they take power on Thursday in the House of Representatives, they want to immediately adopt a new budget law. But Trump continues to cross.
In the budget dispute in the US, the Democrats put pressure on President Donald Trump. Already in the constituent meeting of the newly elected House of Representatives this Thursday they want to use their newly won majority to pass a budget law, they announced on Monday.
This is to end the forced closure of parts of the government apparatus. Trump, however, rejected the draft because it did not include the financing it required for a wall on the Mexican border.
This means that there will be no end to the budget freeze in sight in the new year, which came into force shortly before Christmas. Hundreds of thousands of government employees are currently on unpaid leave or have to do their job without pay, because of the lack of legal funding for the blockade in Congress.
„The President must come to his senses“
The Democrats asked Trump to agree to their bill. „The President must come to his senses and immediately put it into effect by signing it.“ Trump immediately announced that he would stay hard and not sign the bill. „We do not give up, we need security at the border, and the wall is an important part of it,“ he told Fox News.
In a series of Twitter messages, Trump again warned against an „invasion“ of illegal immigrants, which could only be fended off by a border wall. The border is currently „an open wound where drugs, criminals (including people smugglers) and illegals pour into our country.“
The dispute has become a hard showdown between the President and the Democrats. In the new House of Representatives, the Democrats will be able to pass their bill because they have won a majority here in the congressional elections in November. The Senate may refuse its approval. This is where Trump’s Republicans have the majority.
With their budget draft, the Democrats tried to lure Republican senators. The draft envisages securing funding for key government agencies by 30 September; The budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for the controversial border security, will initially only be continued until 8 February in order to gain time for a compromise.
Trump insists on a wall to the border of Mexico
The Republicans had already passed a similar bill in the Senate, but Trump refused. The Democratic group leadership described it as „the culmination of irresponsibility and cynicism if Senate Republicans were to reject a bill they had already supported“.
The main controversy in the budget negotiations is Trump’s call for $ 5 billion (€ 4.39 billion) to build a wall on the border with Mexico. It is intended to ward off migrants. The opposition Democrats and also some of Trump’s Republicans strictly reject the demand.
In the US, it comes in the dispute over the budget again and again to a shutdown. However, given the confrontational style of President Trump, the clashes are particularly bitter this year.
