GOP leaders, however, know they need at least eight Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster and pass any spending bill in the upper chamber. And McConnell is fearful that he won’t be able to pick off that many — and then will shoulder the blame when the government shuts down.

“They’re ready to lay down in front of the train tracks,” predicted one senior House Republican source about Democrats willing to hold the line for their demands.

Under GOP leaders' new strategy, lawmakers would use the new Dec. 22 deadline to pressure Democrats and Republicans to come up with a long-term spending solution to fund the government the rest of the year.

Several GOP leadership sources believe an agreement to continue the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will also need to be part of the equation.

The GOP senators, led chiefly by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, recently presented an offer to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois that paired key language from a border-security measure written by Cornyn with a pathway to legal status for Dreamers that stopped short of citizenship.

The offer given to Durbin dropped some of the most controversial provisions in Cornyn’s border security measure, such as barring federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities and language that would enact tougher penalties for undocumented immigrants who try to reenter the country after being deported.

“One of the things we tried to do is lead with something that’s clearly more of a right-of-center position on the DACA population and border security,” said Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of the Republicans involved in the immigration talks.

Durbin said that plan from Republicans was unacceptable, though he said he’s still trying to negotiate with them.

“It was a 460-page border security bill by Sen. Cornyn,” Durbin said in an interview. “I told him that is just not gonna happen. It didn’t even accept the Dream Act.”

The right, concerned they’re about to lose on immigration, is starting to become more vocal in their warnings to GOP leaders not to “betray the base.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...trategy-271367