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Trump seeks Democrats' help on year-end budget, DACA deal.

After railing against Democrats for weeks and pushing a sweeping tax plan over their objections, President Trump reached out to the rivals Monday — a subtle acknowledgment that he’ll need their help to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.

Trump invited congressional leaders to the White House Thursday for discussions on a year-end budget deal, a do-over after Democrats backed out of an earlier meeting when the president tweeted shortly beforehand that he saw “no deal” to be made.

After railing against Democrats for weeks and pushing a sweeping tax plan over their objections, President Trump reached out to the rivals Monday — a subtle acknowledgment that he’ll need their help to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.

Trump had little choice but to soften his approach. Because many Republican lawmakers refuse to vote for almost any new spending bill, Trump needs Democrats to provide what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) calls “the currency of the realm” — the votes needed to approve a bill to keep government running.

That gives Democrats, who are the minority, a powerful negotiating hand in talks at the White House. In exchange, Democrats want concessions from Trump, particularly an immigration deal to protect young “Dreamers” from deportation as the White House phases out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, that allows them to legally work and remain in the U.S.

We’re glad the White House has reached out and asked for a second meeting,” Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement. “We hope the president will go into this meeting with an open mind, rather than deciding that an agreement can’t be reached beforehand.”

Congress often makes a year-end sprint through its legislative to-do list, but this year’s pile-up is particularly daunting as lawmakers race to finish complicated business before the holidays.

For Republicans, the top priority is to pass the $1.5-trillion tax plan, accomplishing a major campaign promise before Christmas.

The House was set Monday to appoint members of a conference committee to begin reconciling the tax bills approved by the House and Senate into a final product, which will probably be voted on next week.

But first Congress must deal with Friday’s deadline to fund the government.

Leaders are lining up a stopgap measure to provide money for two weeks while budget negotiations continue. That would push the deadline to Dec. 22.

The temporary funding measure will also include a short-term extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps cover working families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. States have been left in the lurch when CHIP expired Oct. 1 at the start of the new fiscal year.

Democrats have a long priority list for negotiations, but at the top is the push for a solution for the 700,000 Dreamers.

Trump once sided with Pelosi and Schumer on this, but has since shifted his views. Leading Democrats, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), have warned that without a bill to help Dreamers they would withhold their votes on the government funding bills, essentially threatening a shutdown.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-n...204-story.html