title:  Trump Is Trying To Force Dems’ Hand On Border Wall Funding – Here’s Why He’ll Fail BIGLY
text: Donald Trump seems to think he can squeeze Congressional Democrats for border wall funding by offering them something in exchange, and he also seems to believe he s hit the jackpot on just what to exchange. He ll hold subsidy payments to insurers on the Obamacare exchanges hostage until Democrats agree to fund his wall. If they continue to stonewall, then, when the ACA s insurance marketplace implodes or the government shuts down (or both), he ll blame Democrats and the whole country will, too.He s not seeing both sides, though. The Democrats actually hold all the good cards here.Why? Surely we can see how both sides have a decent hand, can t we? Trump s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, even said: We d offer them $1 of CSR payments for $1 of wall payments. Right now that s the offer that we ve given to our Democratic colleagues. A one-for-one trade sounds nice and equitable, doesn t it? Trump gets his wall and we get continued stability in the health insurance market, and the government keeps operating. Here s what he s not seeing: Democrats aren t the only ones who don t want to waste money on a big wall along the southern border. Many Republicans don t, either, and that gives Democrats major leverage over Trump.Chuck Schumer s spokesman issued a statement that said: The White House gambit to hold hostage health care for millions of Americans, in order to force American taxpayers to foot the bill for a wall that the President said would be paid for by Mexico is a complete non-starter.[I]f the administration would drop their 11th-hour demand for a wall that Democrats   and a good number of Republicans   oppose, Congressional leaders could quickly reach a deal. Some in the GOP have privately said that it would help if the Trump White House would move on from the border wall because there are too many in Congress who don t want to fund it. Furthermore, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are busy working toward creating a more bipartisan spending bill. But they know that, with control of the entire federal government, they will own a healthcare disaster and they will own a shutdown no matter what Trump decides to say about it.Republicans want to avoid a shutdown   they ve long since figured out that the country blamed them for the 2013 shutdown. That means working with Democrats, including scrapping funding for the wall if doing so means Democrats will agree to other things.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recognizes that Democrats have all the leverage here, and that they need to use that leverage to their advantage. Republicans control both Congress and the White House   people are not going to blame Democrats for a shutdown or for destabilizing the insurance marketplace under these circumstances.Mulvaney actually thinks that Congress should get out of the way of Trump s agenda: This president should be allowed to have his highest priorities funded even though the Democrats rightly have a seat at the table because of the Senate rules. The border wall is a non-starter and possibly dead, at least for now. There are more important things to think about than a wall that won t do anything that Trump claims it will.Featured image by Shawn Thew   Pool via Getty Images