Morning Joe host Mika Scarborough introduced a segment on the threat of another shutdown.
"We're starting off the week with a threat of another government shutdown looming as a real tangible possibility," she said.
"Last Friday, aides and lawmakers appeared optimistic they could reach a deal by today. Now negotiations has stalled. One of the main sticking points is the number of beds to give to immigration and customs enforcement to detain immigrants who come across the border. Democrats have proposed reducing the number of beds, arguing that more humane policy is to let asylum seekers without criminal records to be released while awaiting their immigration proceedings. In interviews yesterday, Senator Richard Shelby, the lead Republican negotiator, didn't appear optimistic about the chances of reaching a deal ahead of Friday's deadline."
SHELBY: I think talks are stalled right now. I'm hoping we can get off the dime later today or in the morning because time's ticking away. But we've got some problem with the Democrats dealing with ICE, that is, detaining criminals that come into the U.S. and they want a cap on them. We don't want a cap on that.
Mick Mulvaney on Meet The Press:
CHUCK TODD: The thought is you have to make a deal and announce something by tomorrow. Do you feel that's a deadline? How confident are you that you can reach a deal by tomorrow?
MULVANEY: Chris that, is a deadline. I'm not confident we're going to get there. I'm hoping we'll get there.
TODD: So is it fair to say whatever Congress hands him, he'll sign. He just may not be enthusiastic about it?
MULVANEY: I don't think so.
TODD: We cannot definitively rule out a government shutdown at the end of this week.
MULVANEY: You absolutely cannot.
"Mike Barnicle, a little confused here, which is nothing new, the Democrats seem to have drath Donald Trump backing down on the number, how much money he wanted for the wall and we started to hear a deal was going to be done," Joe Scarborough said.
"Then Sunday, the Democrats started about limiting the number of illegal immigrants that could be detained. The Republicans asked for an exception for criminals and Democrats said, no, 165,000 beds will be enough. It seems to me that Donald Trump's wall, that's an easy political fight for Democrats to win but now they're adding new conditions, suddenly it gets a lot murkier, doesn't it?"
"A lot murkier," Barnicle agreed. "And dangerous as dynamite. At the end of the week, if there is no deal, if we have another shutdown, in addition to the lives of the people who will be unemployed and going without paychecks, you're talking about the ripple effect within the national economy and the added incentive of people, average voters, to say none of these people can govern. And the lack of faith in the political system increases."
Naturally, if the Morning Joe bunch is blaming Democrats, you know there's more to the story:
Not to mention the cronys getting rich off the new detention centers!
"Both sides," etc.
