“The White House is scrambling to unify Republicans behind [t]rump’s demand for money to build a border wall as part of any deal to reopen the government, as GOP lawmakers are caught between [trump’s] push to fund his signature campaign promise and the spreading consequences of a two-week old partial shutdown.
“Vice President Pence called about a half-dozen House Republicans late Thursday to urge them to vote against measures that would reopen the government without new wall funding, amid White House worries that broad GOP defections would give the Democratic effort bipartisan backing.
“Two Republican officials confirmed the calls, speaking on the condition of anonymity to divulge the private communications.
“Ultimately, just five House GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats on a spending bill that would operate the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 8, and seven Republicans supported separate legislation that would re-open the rest of the federal government through Sept. 30. GOP officials feared the defections could have been much higher had the administration not gotten directly involved.
“Pence’s efforts reflect a growing anxiety among Congressional Republicans over the two-week shutdown that has halted paychecks for 800,000 federal workers but shown no signs of ending anytime soon.”
Of course trumPence is trump’s oily factotum, and would have made these calls anyway. It’s just nice for him that, apparently, the same all-Republicon failure to fund the government, which kicked off the shut down in the first place, also turns out to be providing $10,000 raises to Pence and the rest of trump’s political hack appointees.
So the only people who are suffering are the 800,000 workers without pay, and their families. And the tourists wading through trash unable to find open bathrooms. And the retailers where federal workers might spend if they were getting paid.
But trump’s hand-picked people will all be getting big raises.
