The above statement by Commerce Sec Ross explains WTF some Republicans simply do NOT understand that their President is screwing them and America….
The Hill….
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday that he was confused why thousands of federal workers, who’ve already missed one paycheck, are relying on food banks during the partial government shutdown.
Ross said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he didn’t understand why some of the roughly 800,000 unpaid federal workers have flocked to food banks for meals instead of taking out loans against back pay guaranteed by a bill President Trump signed last week.
“I know they are and I don’t really quite understand why,” said Ross, who’s reportedly worth roughly $700 million.
“So the 30 days of pay that some people will be out, there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it, and we’ve seen a number of ads of financial institutions doing that.”…
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said Thursday that it’s not “palatable” for many federal workers to take out loans for financial assistance during the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Rounds was asked on CNN about comments by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said earlier in the day that he didn’t understand why some federal workers were resorting to food banks when they could take out guaranteed loans….
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will break with President Trump and vote to reopen the government without funding for a border wall, his spokesman told The Denver Post editorial board.
Gardner is one of three Republicans expected to vote to advance the “clean” funding bill.
Gardner’s spokesman told the Post that the senator planned to vote for a “clean funding bill … with no border-security funding attached.”
Gardner, who is up for reelection in 2020 in a state where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintondefeated Trump in 2016, also intends to vote for a measure backed by Trump that the Senate will consider on Thursday.
Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are also expected to vote for the clean funding bill.
Politico…
The Senate will take its first votes in more than a month on reopening government. But both a clean spending bill and President Donald Trump’s proposal appear on course to fail.
Though a short-term spending bill giving the president no new border funding bill passed the Senate with no dissent in December, it’s poised to fail on the Senate floor on Thursday. Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the Nos. 3 and 4 GOP leaders, both said Wednesday that the “continuing resolution” cannot pass the Senate.
Democrats need at least 13 GOP votes to get to 60, and the pickings are slim barring a surprise change of opinion by Trump in the next 24 hours. Many Republicans say the president won’t sign it, so there’s no point in voting for the two-week spending bill written by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) intended to allow government to reopen and negotiations to begin.
Opponents include members like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has met with a bipartisan group about how to end the shutdown, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a freshman who has attacked Washington for being dysfunctional. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) also plans to vote against the Schumer proposal, according to a source familiar with the matter….
Politicalwire….
Joshua Green: “There are two main reasons this shutdown has become a little scary—and together they should cause us to shift our appraisal of U.S. politics to something even more dire than it was before the showdown began. The first way this shutdown is distinct is that the president himself engineered it. Previous ones were always forced by the legislative branch to try to extract concessions—legal status for immigrants, reduced health-care spending—from a president of the opposing party. Such hostage-taking usually proved futile and ended in disappointment.”
“The second distinguishing feature of this shutdown is that it hasn’t produced the kind of immediate backlash that compels both sides to return to negotiations. A close look at public opinion surrounding the impasse and its central issue shows why: Post-midterm elections, the two parties have grown so polarized, and voters so tribal, that there’s no meaningful ‘center’ that Trump or Democrats risk losing.”