And so have the Democrats. Lets face it Trump is about equally unlikely to get either group to pay for it, so he might as well stick to his campaign promises and strong arm Mexicans, instead of trying to strong arm the Democrats.
Wall funding is more than just vanity for Trump–it’s a slush fund.
To hang on to power when the majority of citizens want you out, you have to be able to spread the cash around.
Five billion dollars would be a good start.
(Trump has yet to offer any actual plans for spending the $5 billion he’s asking “for the wall”.* So it’s fair to ask whether any substantial portion of it would actually be spent on a wall…because it would be so much handier to have all that money to spend as he pleases.)
A shut down “crisis” is a terrible thing to waste.
Jesus H Christ, the dems are screwing the pooch big time. Master Negotiator is out there twiting “come to the White House and make a deal.” Take a page out of Bob Dole and fit every piece of librul porn pork you can into a package with exactly $5B for a wall to nowhere. DACA - check, Obamacare expansion - check, immigration - check, end the tariff war - check, ad nauseum. Dems, man up, negotiate with a toddler. $5B out of the federal budget isn’t even a rounding error. Pres Bone Sprs hasn’t shown any kind of negotiation-fu since entering the White House, so pick him off.
Well, given the next Congress isn’t even in session, why don’t we actually wait until they pass something (or, hell, just convene) before we start whining about how they are blowing it. :rolleyes:
Your plan is the worst idea possible. If they give Trump a wall now, he holds it over the Dems for the next two years. They’d be cutting their own throats, no matter what they get in return. (They gave him $25 billion in exchange for DACA earlier this year and Trump turned it down, BTW.) Giving Trump the win of his presidency before they even take control of the House is lunacy.
Good thing that, unlike Trump, the Dems don’t take ideas from anonymous posters on the Internet.
Again, as stated above, they TRIED that. Several times. Trump fucked it up.
How Trump Let His Goal of Building a Border Wall Slip Away
Trump’s idea of compromise is he gets everything he wants, and fuck you. You can’t negotiate with someone like that. You can’t make a deal with someone like that.
This will end when the Repubs grow a spine. I don’t see that happening soon.
As a matter of policy, we don’t negotiate with terrorists. Giving in just teaches Trump to hold the government hostage for the next nonsensical thing he wants, and the one after that, and the one after that.
What we (“dems”) should be doing is negotiating with the rest of the GOP. And part of that negotiation needs to include “…and you will control your toddler. If you cannot control your toddler, you will help us remove him. Once that’s done, we’ll see if we can recapture some bipartisan sense of compromise.”
Who the hell is saying “give in?” Let’s be very clear that no one, including myself, is saying give Donnie the five large and hope for a miracle. The opposite is true, let some hostages go and give us some goodies, then we’ll fund a rounding error.
In other words, Master Negotiator turned down $25B earlier this year, so make him suck up to giving away a lot more for a lot less. Win Win. Dems get DACA and a whole bag of Santa’s goodies, and trumpy gets $5 large that won’t do jack. This is a fire sale. $5B is prolly less than what the Koch brothers are spending, and the bang for the buck is huge. And next time this wannabe terrorist wants to “negotiate” then bring down the price tag and ante up on the quid pro quo. It’s a rationale way to extract maximum gains for minimum dollars.
Then I assume you’ve been asleep for the last two years, because that is exactly how Trump and the GOP would frame your suggestion, and exactly how Fox News would report it to his base. “Dems cave completely, WonderTrump wins again!” And then Trump will reneg on his part of the deal anyway, and the GOP will let him.
Naw, I agree with the strategy*, but the Congress is not in session, so complaints that they are “blowing it” are premature. At least wait until, say, Friday. 
*But in a way which will pass the Senate, of course.
Trump is punishing himself for nothing by canceling his holiday plans.
Congress isn’t in session, but he tweets that he’s there waiting?
I guess that’s his PR strategy? I’m here, where’s the D’s? The media isn’t biting and the strategy isn’t working.
That strategy will not work with Trump. As far as he’s concerned, all transactions have a winner and a loser - and if he’s not the winner, then he won’t play at all.
Fair to say, then, ace, that even if Nancy and Chuck got together with President Whose Grandfather Was A Whoremonger in PNW/Yukon In Late 1800s, along with tag-alongs Mick and Jared, that all that will happen is that the latter two will just fucking sit there (exactly like Vice President Too Insecure a Childman Dipshit To Be Alone Around Women, about two weeks ago in that comfy menage a cinq on TV) while Yours Fucking Putridly brays on and on and on about one thing, and one thing only, ergo: “WALL! WALL! WALL!”?
The King’s Singers – Building A Wall from the classic “The Selfish Giant” (1972) Based on a written short story of Oscar Wilde.
I really like that term, “Trumpgeld”. So apt.
And not it’s not just the Wall. He’ll threaten anything to get whatever current desire his fevered Id has come up with.* Sometimes it’s better to just pay the Trumpgeld up front at a lower price ($5 billion instead of a smoking crater where Finland used to be).
*Do what I want or I’ll nuke Finland.
NOTE: I am using the nuclear obliteration of Finland as an exaggerated example. In reality it might be something as trifling as charging tolls to drive on Interstates or ending Medicare.
GOD that’s beautiful 
Jump to 3:50 for the best part
I would call that giving in. Trump’s demand right now is $5 billion, not $25 billion. And he’s convinced that he can accomplish “the Wall” with that amount.
There’s also just no reason to do so. Past history has shown that Trump will eventually accept a deal without any funding for his Wall, as he has done so before. The people we have to compromise with are the Republicans in Congress, not Trump.
We tried throwing him a bone before. And he rejected that. Fighting for the Wall is largely symbolic for Trump. He’s not as into it as people think: he just has to appear to care about it. If he gives in and can say the evil Democrats stopped him, he still wins.
The Wall is also largely symbolic to both Trump followers and those who voted Democrat. If the Wall gets built, that will be seen by both sides as a failure of the Dems to hold this guy off.
The only way I can see what you say happening is if we get something at the same level as the symbol of the wall that the Democrats can genuinely push as a win. The most fitting choice–amnesty–is clearly off the table. We can’t get a Supreme Court pick, either. Maybe a federal law recognizing sexuality as as suspect class?
(I kid with that last bit, of course. But those are the level of things I think would actually be worth it. Otherwise, wait for Trump to fold, as he always does.)
The whole point is that there’s absolutely no reason he won’t do all that anyways. If anything, giving in means he now knows his threats work.
It’s the underlying reason for not negotiating with terrorists. It disheartens me that many liberals want us to do so.
The rule should remain “You shut down the government, you don’t get what you want.”
Best case scenario: Congress passes the identical bill the House already passed and Donny gets to approve it and tell the American public that HE Personally stopped the shutdown out of his deep abiding love of the American people and the Evil DemocRATS plan was to shut down the Government all along so he Personally stopped them when no one else could!
I got a better idea: Don’t give Trump his wall, he can’t fulfill his campaign promise, and his base turns on him to rip him to shreds.
I see no upside in pleasing Trump or his base. Either the Republican party runs someone who’s actually capable of being a president or it implodes after they listen to the Trog wing, offer up another buffoon and the moderates in this country say, “Oh, no. Not again.” That’s how it works when one of the two parties has turned demagogue.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…