A SHUTDOWN WOULD FIX THIS TOWN
President Donald Trump last night said the United States could do with a "good shutdown" of its government to fix the "mess" that had transpired in Washington.
He urged Republicans to consider forcing a shutdown in September and called for a change to Senate rules in an attempt to get funding for his policies including building a wall on the Mexican border.
Mr Trump expressed frustration that, despite Republicans holding both houses in Congress and the White House, they had been forced to submit to Democrat demands in passing a spending bill worth $1.1 trillion.
That bill averted an imminent government shutdown and kept it funded until September 30.
It included an unprecedented extra $120 million for the cost of protecting Mr Trump and his family.
The Secret Service will receive an extra $60 million including $23 million for providing increased security at Trump Tower in New York. Mr Trump, writing on Twitter, said: "Our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September to fix mess!
"The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51 per cent." shut closed "closed for business" business usa u.s. "united states" goal negotiate negotiation town broke broken "made in usa" washington "washington dc" victory success leader leadership win winner lose loser 2017 2018 future life bill deal safe "american dream" future "summer 2017" summer deals job employment money cash wealth However, many Republicans were reluctant to back Mr Trump's call for to change in the rules to a straight majority vote in the Senate, eliminating filibustering, a move known as the "nuclear option".
Orrin Hatch, a veteran Republican senator from Utah, said: "He (Mr Trump) clearly hasn't served in a legislature. If we did not have the filibuster this country would have gone a long time ago to socialism."
Mr Trump later claimed the spending bill had been an "under the radar" victory for Republicans. budget director Mick Mulvaney has warned that a government shutdown in September may be "inevitable" if Democrats don’t “behave better.”
Speaking during the daily White House press briefing, Mr Mulvaney sought to clarify an earlier tweet series from President Donald Trump in which he said that the US needs a “good ‘shutdown’ to fix mess!” after Congress reached a budget deal that will keep the government open until September but didn’t include funding for some of the president’s top spending priorities.
Mr Trump also suggested in the tweets that removing the the Senate filibuster might be a good strategy to pushing through his policies.
