Bloomberg: Senate GOP to Back Trump on Border Wall, Risking Shutdown Fight - Page 9

gotta love em' 11th hour deals to avert something. exciting!

I want to hear something from fucking Lindsey Graham. He's a co-sponsor and it's in good terms with Trump now (though that doesn't matter much really).

Sometimes I feel Graham doesn’t care lol.

Yeah he's golfed twice with him and rode on Air Force One yesterday but all he talks about like all GOPers is Taxes and Healthcare.

DA is not on Lindsey's priority list. He said it before, he wanted to get healthcare done first, now it's taxes. He's probably just real good buddies with Durbin.

Better question is what way he'll vote when the issue comes to vote. Would be weird to see someone vote against his own bill but then again integrity isn't something you can accuse many republicans of.

Just wanted to chime in regarding the immigrant rights orgs and their willingness to negotiate, or put pressure on deals and trade offs:

As I've mentioned before I volunteer with and sit on the board of an immigrants' rights org on the East Coast. We recently had a massive meeting for DREAMers and DACA recipients from 3 states and DC. We discussed the current bills and their differences, as well as the recent list of "asks" put out by Whitehouse. The purpose of this meeting was so that the Org could get a clear idea of what the DREAMers and DACA recipients in the community/area wanted, as well as what they were willing to trade off. After hours of group discussion and debate the following was agreed on by those in attendance:

1. Focus on passage of DREAM Act over other bills, but still willing to accept other bills as a back up. The DREAMers in attendance all agreed that they preferred this bill over all others, with RACA being a close 2nd but ultimately not favorable due to not having a bill in both chambers. DA was preferred due to length of pathway to citizenship, and that it did not include certain negative provisions like those found in SUCCEED Act.

2. What they DO NOT want attached to DA in any way. A majority of those in attendance, almost unanimously, did not want any type of interior enforcement that would put their parents and other family members at risk of deportation or losing future relief/legalization options. They rationalized that certain "asks" like increased funds for ICE, would eventually lead to more ICE activity. And they didn't want to increase the odds of family members and others being caught up in an ICE raid. They agreed that they did not want any of the following items, that were specified on the whitehouse list:
-Mandatory Everify - Increased Detention Centers - Increased ICE agents ETC

**They also opposed cuts to legal immigration or family petitions (RAISE Act). Their reasoning was that although a merit-based system may be a good idea for the future that should be left for CIR compromise. They also agreed that the US could implement a merit based system that did not completely exclude family based immigration.

3. What they were willing to attach to DA or compromise. They agreed that if needed in order to pass DA legislation the Org should push Dems to allow Border Security provisions. Below are some of the items they listed were agreeable to:
- Increased funding for Border Patrol Agents - Increased Infrastructure (think roads, checkpoints, etc)
- Technology for Border Security (drones, cameras, etc) - And as a last resort Funding "THE WALL"

**Please note that while the DREAMers at the meeting did agree to all of the above they did discuss the timing of when to announce the negotiations, or whether to announce publicly. They decided that there was no need to publicly announce their willingness to make these specific trade off, and to do so would hinder any negotiations that may be happening behind closed doors within congress. They debated and ultimately decided on an internal strategy, to avoid prematurely giving away too much and giving away leverage to those who want to oppose DA or add on poison pill provisions. Most of those in attendance have had experience in lobbying congress and state assemblies before, and I'm assuming theyre going off of that experience. The ORG will take this strategy as their guidance and plan on how to pressure representatives of both parties, and ultimately push for passage of DA

With Trump it’s impossible to know what he wants. He’s a fucking moron.

Look at how many times he’s changed his stance in the last 18 hours regarding the bi-partisan CSRs bill by Murray and Alexander.

Republicans don't have the balls to shutdown the government right now. If they do I'm going to pop a bottle a champagne at their stupidity.