Comment: Democrats showed up to shutdown with policy demands
By Nia-Malika Henderson / Bloomberg Opinion
It’s been a week since the government shut down, and at some point, one side will have to cave and compromise. Republicans are betting that they can get five more Senate Democrats to back the House bill, while Democrats are betting that President Donald Trump will live up to his TACO nickname and start to negotiate around health care and bring other Republicans along. Trump seemed to telegraph as much on Monday, then backpedaled. The official GOP line is that there will be no negotiation until the government is open again.
But the incident revealed a Trump-led GOP that at times seems to be negotiating with itself. Either this is a great opportunity to lay off government employees, or its a dire situation caused by reckless Democrats. The script seems to change from day to day, with threats of mass firings, cuts to federal funding for blue states and the prospect of furloughed workers not getting back pay.
“The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you are talking about,” Trump said when asked Tuesday if federal workers would get back pay. “But for the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”
This selectively punitive approach didn’t land well among Republicans, who are trying to pass themselves off as the guardians of good government.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-democrats-showed-up-to-shutdown-with-policy-demands/