Mexico Wall Funding On Hold To Avoid Government Shutdown
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - Congress is on the clock as they work to pass a federal spending bill by the end of the week or face a government shutdown.
The White House remains confident that won't happen despite President Donald Trump's earlier demands that the new budget includes funding for a wall along the Mexican border.
The wall was a core campaign promise that Trump ran on, but the reality of the budget process is making it a hard one to keep. After getting backlash, the White House is reportedly ready to put funding for the wall on hold until fiscal 2018 negotiations.
President Trump is reportedly planning to pivot to a message of border security.
"Money for our military and our border security and wall, those are the President's priorities with respect to the CT and keeping the government open," said spokesman Sean Spicer during a briefing.
Democrats and a number of border state Republicans said the wall was a pricey dealbreaker, but they've agreed in principle to more funding for border security and surveillance.
If no deal is reached, lawmakers are likely to pass a temporary resolution that would fund the government for at least another week.
When asked why the President has not worked with Congress to pass the ten pieces of legislation he promised in his first 100 days, Spicer pivoted and pointed to the 32 executive orders Trump will have signed off on by Friday, the most of any president since World War II.
"I think you have to look at it in totality of what he did get done," said Spicer.
On Wednesday, the President is expected to unveil a tax reform blueprint which will cut corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 15 percent. It's similar to a plan he unveiled during his campaign which the Independent Tax Policy Bureau estimated would cost the federal government nearly $2.4 trillion dollars over the next decade.
Treasure Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Monday that the final plan won't add to the deficit.
"The tax plan will pay for itself with economic growth," he said.
