Republicans, Democrats at an Impasse on Border Wall as Shutdown Nears

Photo: carlos garcia rawlins/Reuters

Spending bills expire Saturday morning and without new agreements, parts of the government would not operate

A partisan battle of wills over the border wall is set to come to a head this week, with Democrats and President Trump entrenched in an impasse and less than a week left to avoid a partial government shutdown.

With time dwindling before seven spending bills expire at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, lawmakers had little sense of how they would resolve the long-brewing fight over the border wall, which has become a potent political symbol among both parties.

“We’re at an impasse and at the moment it doesn’t look like things are getting any better,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) said shortly before the Senate emptied out last week. “There has to be some kind of a breakthrough,” he said, before noting, “No movement yet.”

The charged political dynamics around funding a wall along the Southern border with Mexico have left both parties with few incentives to compromise. Mr. Trump made building the wall his signature campaign pledge in 2016, and delivering on it has become increasingly important as the 2020 election nears. Mr. Trump had said Mexico would pay for it.

Meanwhile, Democrats, energized by their recent midterm victories, will only gain leverage when they take back control of the House in January. And with dozens of Democrats considering a 2020 presidential run, the party’s left wing is in no mood to compromise with the president.

For each party, “the goal of pleasing the base is a huge impediment to getting a deal done,” said Greg Valliere, chief global strategist at Horizon Investments. “Trump feels, with some justification, that his base wants a very tough immigration policy and a wall. That’s a really enormous promise he made to his base,” he said. Meanwhile, Democrats, he said “smell blood. They want to show their base how tough they are.”

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