Thread: Trump overrules GOP with deal on spending, debt, Harvey aid

Trump overrules GOP with deal on spending, debt, Harvey aid

By erica werner, ap congressional correspondent
WASHINGTON — Sep 6, 2017, 1:54 PM ET

President Donald Trump overruled congressional Republicans and his own treasury secretary Wednesday and cut a deal with Democrats to fund the government and raise the federal borrowing limit for three months, all part of an agreement to speed money to Harvey relief.

In the course of a relatively brief negotiating session at the White House, Trump largely sided with Democratic leaders as they pushed for the three-month deal. He brushed aside calls from Republican congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a longer extension to the debt limit, which Republicans had been aiming for to avoid having to take another vote on the politically toxic issue before the 2018 elections.

Trump then boarded a plane to North Dakota with Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, in an effort to garner bipartisan support for tax legislation that Republican leaders are crafting on a purely partisan basis.

That continued the day of bizarre disconnects between the president and the leaders of his party.

"We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer," Trump told reporters on Air Force One, not bothering to mention House Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who also were present. "We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred, very important."

"We had a very good meeting, we essentially came to a deal and I think the deal will be very good," Trump said. Details of the meeting were disclosed by several aides briefed on the proceedings who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly.

The deal promises to speed the $7.9 billion Hurricane Harvey aid bill, which passed the House overwhelmingly Wednesday, to Trump's desk before disaster accounts run out later this week.

The move also buys almost three months, until Dec. 15, for Washington to try to solve myriad other issues, including more funding for the military, immigration and health care, and a longer-term increase in the government's borrowing authority to avoid a first-ever default.

Trump cut the deal at the White House just hours after Ryan had slammed the idea of the three-month extension sought by Democrats as "ridiculous."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireS...y-aid-49657311

Wow! Now, see, that is the man we elected President. He's not influenced by anyone, not even his own people. He makes his own decisions, knows better than any of them what is best to do, so why all this wishy, washy, kill it, save it, "love" the illegals with "big heart" "compassion" baby DACA talk coming from? There is more to that story than we know. Hope we find out one day soon.

In any event, glad to see him off that crap for now and on to what he's best at, fixing problems for the American People.

Originally Posted by Judy

Wow! Now, see, that is the man we elected President. He's not influenced by anyone, not even his own people. He makes his own decisions, knows better than any of them what is best to do, so why all this wishy, washy, kill it, save it, "love" the illegals with "big heart" "compassion" baby DACA talk coming from? There is more to that story than we know. Hope we find out one day soon.

In any event, glad to see him off that crap for now and on to what he's best at, fixing problems for the American People.

What?!? You can bet if Pelosi and Schumer jumped on the deal, it is not in our best interest! Making a deal that Schumer and Pelosi wanted is not exactly what I'd call making his own decision.

Hmm, I see the extension will end before the 6 month extension of DACA ends. Yep, there could certainly be a deal in the making.

Trump splits with GOP to support Democrats' plan to package Harvey aid, debt ceiling, spending

• President Donald Trump agrees to support a Hurricane Harvey relief bill packaged with a short-term debt ceiling extension and government funding.
• Republicans congressional leaders opposed the proposal for only short-term solutions put forth by Democratic leaders.
• By passing the package, Congress would avoid two politically contentious September deadlines, for now.

Jacob Pramuk | @jacobpramuk
Published 5 Hours Ago | Updated 56 Mins AgoCNBC.com

Trump agrees with Democrats' proposal to raise debt limit 2 Hours Ago | 04:00


President Donald Trump on Wednesday broke with his party and agreed to back a short-term debt ceiling extension and government funding measure as part of the package to approve relief funding for Hurricane Harvey.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell later said he would support the package.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said that "the president and the congressional leadership agreed" to the proposal following a meeting at the White House. Republican lawmakers in the room opposed Schumer and Pelosi's push to extend the debt limit and fund the government for only three months, but Trump agreed to it.

Talking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to a tax reform speech in North Dakota, Trump said the deal "will be very good."

"We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important — always we'll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it," he said, according to a White House transcript.

"Also on the [continuing resolution on funding] and also on Harvey, which now we're going to be adding something because of what's going on [with Hurricane Irma] in Florida — but we had a very good meeting. We essentially came to a deal, and I think the deal will be very good," Trump added.

Just hours before, House Speaker Paul Ryan called a three-month debt limit increase proposed by Democrats "ridiculous" and "unworkable." An extension of only three months for the debt ceiling could give Democrats leverage over the majority Republicans.

If Congress can pass a package containing all three measures, it would knock out politically contentious September deadlines to avoid risking default on the federal debt and a government shutdown. But it would set up another showdown in December and puts the GOP in a difficult spot.

"In the meeting, the President and Congressional leadership agreed to pass aid for Harvey, an extension of the debt limit, and a continuing resolution both to December 15, all together. Both sides have every intention of avoiding default in December and look forward to working together on the many issues before us," Schumer and Pelosi said in a statement.

Getty Images
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) (L) makes a point to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office prior to his departure from the White House September 6, 2017 in Washington, DC.

The House on Wednesday easily approved nearly $8 billion in Hurricane Harvey relief funding. The bill did not include the debt limit or government funding.

McConnell said he would add the plan agreed to by Trump and Democrats as an amendment to the House-passed bill and support it.

"In a meeting down at the White House, the president and the Senate and House Democratic leadership agreed to a three-month continuing resolution and a debt ceiling into December. I will be adding that as an amendment to the flood relief bill that's come over from the House on the floor and I will be supporting it," the Kentucky Republican said.

The Senate was previously expected to attach just a debt limit extension to the measure before voting and sending it back to the House later this week. Some conservatives had opposed pairing both policies, at all, though GOP leaders had backed attaching a longer debt limit increase to the Harvey aid.

Ryan on Wednesday appeared to take issue specifically with the three-month extension timeline rather than pairing the two measures in the first place. He accused the Democratic leaders of "playing politics" and jeopardizing the federal response to Harvey by calling for a short-term debt limit hike.

"What the leaders you just described proposed is unworkable and it could put in jeopardy the kind of hurricane response we need to have," Ryan said. "To play politics with the debt ceiling like Schumer and Pelosi apparently are doing I don't think is a good idea."

Schumer and Pelosi had not insisted on combining legislation to pass the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into law with measures to either raise the debt ceiling or fund the government. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ended the Obama-era DACA program protecting hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation, with a six-month delay to allow Congress to approve a bill extending it.

The Democratic leaders also stressed that they want to see the DREAM Act — which would put the program into law — "come to the floor and pass as soon as possible."

Asked earlier Wednesday if he could support the Democrats' three-month extension proposal, Trump said: "We'll see."

Ryan on Wednesday said "we will not leave" until the relief package is passed.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/06/schu...mit-raise.html

On any and everything to do with money and running the government, I trust Trump more than Paul Ryan.

Trump cuts deal with Democrats on DACA Amnesty for illegal aliens!

What choice did he have?

Originally Posted by nntrixie

What choice did he have?

He had the choice of playing hard ball instead of bowing in acquiesce to Pelosi and Schumer. I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of losing to the Democrats all the time. Furthermore, it looks like Trump not only bowed to Pelosi and Schumer, it is also sounding like he promsied he would help them push a DACA amnesty.

Yes, another thing I'm getting tired of - loosing period.

Let's face it, though, our enemies are also those so called republicans who are supposed to be the ones we supported.

Both sides of congress seem willing to play politics using the hurricane victims as pawns.

I don't know about other, but I was glad to vote for Pres. Trump -of course the sad, very sad fact was - there was no choice.

The one thing I believed was those who call themselves republicans and conservatives would work with the President, especially on the things the American people want. The reasons we voted for him, (other than the specter of Hillary).

Maybe no one else believed this, but I have to confess my naivety -didn't realize I could still be so gullible.

He may care about DACA and some American people, but he does not care about the Republicans in California. I doubt if we had a natural disaster he would come here.
Evidently he is not man enough to stand up to Jerry Brown or our MECha LaRaza gang.
Back to packing to move because Judy's president has no heart for the Californian's that voted for him.