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You are here: Home / House of Representatives / Divided Government Begins

Divided Government Begins

January 2, 2019 at 6:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “The new Congress begins tomorrow, and leaders are going to the White House this afternoon for a border security briefing with President Trump and DHS officials. This is now tied for the sixth-longest shutdown in U.S. history.”

“The House — which will be run by Nancy Pelosi as of tomorrow afternoon — will pass its stopgap spending bill by 7 p.m. tomorrow evening. It will fund most of the government through September, but kick DHS funding to February. Dems will make the argument that they’re governing while the White House is sowing chaos. Both of these items individually had support from the Senate.”

“The calculus by the president and many of his allies is that Pelosi is in a jam, and cannot sustain a no-money-for-a-border-wall position.”

“But Pelosi gains from this fight internally. The border security money in the stopgap — $1.3 billion — is plenty for most Democrats. Since most Democrats have ruled out a DACA-for-border-wall deal, we struggle to see what deal can be had at the moment.”

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Filed Under: House of Representatives

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About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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