Will we be able to get a federal budget deal before coming of New Year?

The worst that could occur is happening – our federal government is closed for business.

No matter what he says otherwise, it's Trump's fault

And not just because of the fact that our members of Congress want to extend the Christmas holiday weekend into a period of being off-from-work as long as possible.

YET THE FACT that this shutdown is coinciding with the winter holidays (a phrase I’m sure will irritate the very sensibilities of everybody who thinks President Donald Trump is justified in his actions) may well be the reason Trump will be able to get away with it.

For those who haven’t paid too close of attention to detail – it became a fact on Friday that there would be no agreement by all of Congress and signed off by the president towards a federal government budget.

This time, we really can’t blame our rank-and-file of the membership of Congress for being unable to get their act together.

This inability to get things done is something for which the totality of blame can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump himself.

Trump would like our national border to be something … 

IT COULD BE that Congress could piece together something resembling a spending plan that nobody really likes, but would keep the government going. But Trump is insistent that a federal budget include federal funds for what seems to be the most important of all the trash-talk rhetoric he has spewed during his presidency.

The border wall!

As in he’s determined to have that barricade erected along the U.S./Mexico border regardless of how stupid or trivial the idea truly is. It has become a matter of personal pride – he’s determined to erect a U.S. equivalent of the Berlin Wall of old.

At this point, I don’t even think it’s about appeasing the ideological nitwits who back him in large part because they like to hear trash talk that implies those “foreigners” are to blame for everything that is wrong with their lives.

I ACTUALLY THINK it is a personal thing with Trump – as though he thinks his presidency would be regarded historically as a complete and utter failure if he can’t get that wall erected.

… similar to the Berlin Wall of old?

In reality, there are so many other issues so much more important that will be the reasons why Trump will be regarded as a failure as president. The fact that he’s obsessed with a border barricade is just one tiny piece of the Trump puzzle.

The problem with a border wall is that for a large segment of Congress, it is a debate-stopper. When one considers that a new House of Representatives with a Democratic majority will be taking power soon, it is safe to say there’s no way there ever will be funding for a border wall approved that Trump can sign into law.

It ain’t a gonna happen.

YET TRUMP LIKELY figures this issue is more about trash-talk rhetoric – figuring that by continuing to tout a wall that won’t do a thing to keep people out of this country (that’s the reality, no matter how much the ideologues want to deny it), he’s ticking off people who were never going to vote for him or support him in any significant way.

When will negotiation resume on Capitol Hill?

But we’re in the holiday weekend this week. As in the federal government will be closed Monday and Tuesday, and likely would have been running on limited shifts this week and next – with full-time work crews not expected back until after New Year’s Day.

Meaning if something can happen in terms of political procedures by then, it would be as though the federal government didn’t really close. Kind of like that line of logic that asks if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s around to hear, does it make a sound?

My guess is that Trump is counting on the populace not paying any attention this week – meaning he can ask if government REALLY shuts down under such circumstances.

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