Donald Trump’s upcoming hundredth day in office, April 29, is also the day the government officially runs out of money—and there could be a shutdown unless Republicans and Democrats can agree on a new budget by midnight on April 28.
FiveThirtyEight reports that the Trump administration is trying to use the urgency of avoiding a shutdown to push through some of their spending priorities, like increases in defense spending, deep cuts to domestic programs, and, mainly, money for the border wall with Mexico. But Democrats say they will refuse to pass the budget if it includes funding for the wall. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, said the wall is a “nonstarter,” according to The New York Times.
....the wall is not built, which it will be, the drug situation will NEVER be fixed the way it should be!#BuildTheWall
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2017
Republicans are willing to let the border wall go for now, according to USA Today, but Trump really wants that funding. Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney has said the administration will exchange $1 of “Cost Reduction Subsidies,” or money that helps low-income people afford health care, for every $1 of border wall funding. If the Democrats refuse the deal, the government would allegedly stop paying the health care subsidies. But the problem with this, as Slate points out, is that Trump would cause millions of people to lose health care in order to follow through on his threat—and voters wouldn’t like that too much.
Nobody wants a shutdown—but it’s unclear if anyone will be willing to give up enough of their priorities to avoid one. We’ll see if this can be resolved by Friday.