After pressure from his extremist base and the realization that the spending bill will not fully fund his big, beautiful border wall, Trump wavers on his position, threatening to VETO it.
Trump threatens to veto omnibus spending bill over DACA and the border wall
The about-face comes a day after White House officials issued public assurances the president would sign the legislation, despite his misgivings about it. The government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday if Trump does not sign a funding bill into law.
In his tweet Friday morning, Trump claims DACA and lack of funding for the border wall are reasons why he may veto the bill but Democrats had offered a deal that was rejected:
The House Freedom Caucus, The Heritage Foundation, Laura Ingraham and other Right Wing Extremists are demanding Trump stand up to the GOP who agreed on a 2000 page omnibus Spending Bill in large part because the bill lacks funding for the border wall but includes funding for Planned Parenthood.
Congress had reached a tentative agreement Wednesday evening on the $1.3 trillion Spending Bill that includes $1.6 billion for border barriers. Trump had previously boasted on twitter that the bill includes money for his wall when in fact there are design limits attached to the border barriers money which will prevent the construction of any of Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” prototypes.
The bill does not include DACA protections but does include protections for Sanctuary Cities. It also allocates a $3 billion increase over 2017 spending levels to be directed at tackling the Opioid addiction epidemic. Democrats were successful in including funding for Planned Parenthood, and Community Health Centers, and blocking employers from pocketing workers’ tips, among other measures.
Here’s what Congress is stuffing into its $1.3 trillion spending bill
Overall spending: The “omnibus” appropriations bill doles out funding for the remainder of fiscal 2018 — that is, until Sept. 30 — to virtually every federal department and agency pursuant to the two-year budget agreement Congress reached in February. Under that agreement, defense spending generally favored by Republicans is set to jump $80 billion over previously authorized spending levels, while domestic spending favored by Democrats rises by $63 billion. The defense funding includes a 2.4 percent pay raise for military personnel and $144 billion for Pentagon hardware. The domestic spending is scattered across the rest of the federal government, but lawmakers are highlighting increases in funding for infrastructure, medical research, veterans programs and efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. Civilian federal employees get a 1.9 percent pay raise, breaking parity with the military for the first time in several years.
Just yesterday, Ryan was confident Trump would sign the bill.
If Trump refuses to sign the bill by the end of today, there will be a government shut down.