As the government shutdown rolls into its second week, some Republicans are not happy that Donald Trump took away one weapon they had hoped to use to get Democrats to bend to their will.
According to a report on Monday from Politico, there is little light at the end of the tunnel as the government shutdown rumbles on, with the GOP leadership now saying it will no longer let Democrats call for their own stopgap spending bill to fund the government until the end of the month — instead allowing only Republican alternatives.
That means, Politico wrote, that Republicans will be sticking to their hardball tactics in the hope that Democrats will be blamed.
But there is also a belief that the president has handcuffed them by taking away what they felt was a major motivator that could get Democrats to budge.
The report noted, “The GOP fear is that if the military pay deadline passes without action, there will be little to stop the shutdown from continuing for several more weeks at least. Some Republicans have privately warned the White House that taking unilateral action to pay service members would deprive the party of a key lever to make Democrats feel overwhelming consequences for their refusal to act on a House-passed spending bill.”
Trump has ordered the Pentagon to use all means necessary to divert money to meet service members' payroll during the shutdown, while other government workers — those who have not lost their jobs — will be left hanging this week.
According to Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), “It’s a compelling reason to open the damn government ... the troop deadline is the issue — if anything becomes an inflection point, it’s that.”
Politico reported, "The GOP effort to force Democrats to heel comes as talks between the top four congressional leaders remain virtually nonexistent. And there’s no sign that rank-and-file Senate Democrats — just five of whom could quickly end the shutdown — are ready to flip ahead of another scheduled vote on the House-passed stopgap Tuesday night.”