INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Donald Trump is taking a political risk by gambling on a shutdown.A partial United States government shutdown was almost certain to drag
through the Christmas holiday after the Senate adjourned on Saturday without breaking an impasse over President Donald Trump's demand for
more funds for a border wall.With no deal in sight on a bill to fund the government, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell sent senators
While he said he would call them back if a deal was struck, the decision all but guaranteed a partial shutdown would stretch at least until
then.Lawmakers will depart Washington with Trump and Senate Democrats seemingly as entrenched in their positions as ever.Financing for about
a quarter of federal government programs - including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture - expired at midnight and
will not be renewed until a deal is done.Federal parks were to close and more than 400,000 federal "essential" employees in those agencies
will work without pay until the dispute is resolved
Another 380,000 will be "furloughed", meaning they are put on temporary leave.Law enforcement efforts, border patrols, mail delivery and
airport operations will keep running.The shutdown caps a perilous week for the president, with Defense Secretary James Mattis resigning in
protest at Trump's sudden decision to pull United States troops out of Syria
The planned withdrawal was widely criticized, even by senior Republicans in Congress.The political turmoil added to fears about the economy
that are plaguing investor sentiment, helping fuel continued heavy losses in the stock market on Friday.The latest dysfunction in Washington
does not bode well for bipartisan cooperation next year, when Democrats will have a stronger hand as they take control of the House of
Representatives in January."VERY FAR APART"Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney huddled with the Senate's
top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, on Saturday afternoon, but they appeared to make little headway toward a deal to re-open the government."The
vice president came in for a discussion and made an offer
Unfortunately, we're still very far apart," a spokesman for Schumer said.Pence offered to drop the demand for $5 billion for a border wall,
substituting instead $2.1 billion, ABC News reported citing unnamed sources.Trump put off a plan to spend Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago resort
in Florida because of the shutdown, the White House said
First lady Melania Trump, who is already in Florida, is to return to Washington to spend Christmas with her husband.In a call with
reporters, a senior Trump administration official said the president was still pressing for $5 billion for a wall or barrier along the
border with Mexico and other security enhancements.Building a wall to keep migrants from entering the United States illegally was a central
plank of Trump's presidential campaign, but Democrats are vehemently opposed and have rejected his funding request.Following a meeting at
the White House with several Republican lawmakers, Trump again tweeted about the need for border security to ward off "the crisis of illegal
activity."Republican Senator Richard Shelby, who attended the meeting, said it was unlikely any agreement on a stopgap funding measure was
imminent.Earlier in the week, leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives thought they had reached a deal that Trump would sign
that contained less money for border security, only to watch the president, under pressure from conservatives, re-assert his demand for $5
billion at the last minute.The House, where Trump's fellow Republicans currently hold a majority, passed a bill that included the $5
billion, but it ran aground in the Senate.In a joint statement on Saturday, Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said that if
the shutdown continues past next week, they will pass legislation to re-open the government when Democrats take control of the House on
Americans.According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in late November, only 31 per cent of those surveyed said improved border security should be
among the top three priorities for Congress.That suggests Trump is taking a political risk by gambling on a shutdown to press his point as
Democrats are gearing up for the 2020 presidential primary elections and looking for issues to seize on for an advantage.The longest federal
government shutdown, lasting 21 days, occurred in December 1995 and January 1996, triggered by conflicts between President Bill Clinton and
congressional Republicans over Medicare funding and government spending
Clinton is widely viewed as having won the political battle over the shutdown, and was re-elected in 1996.In 2013, the government shut down
for 16 days after conservative Republicans demanded to strip funding for, or delay implementation of, President Barack Obama's signature
Republicans suffered in public opinion polls and eventually capitulated.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
