Bickering over Trump's wall money means federal budget is on hold

WASHINGTON - The US federal government was expected to remain partially shut down past Christmas as the standoff deepened on Saturday over US President Donald Trump's demand for funds to build a border wall with Mexico.

With Trump's insistence on $5 billion for the wall and negotiations with Democrats in Congress far from a breakthrough, even a temporary measure to keep the government running while talks continued seemed out of reach until the Senate returned for a full session on Thursday.

From coast to coast, the first day of the shutdown played out in uneven ways. The Statue of Liberty was still open for tours, thanks to funding from New York state, and the US Post Office was still delivering mail, as an independent agency.

Yet the disruption affected many government operations and the routines of 800,000 federal employees. Roughly 420,000 workers were deemed essential and were expected to work unpaid. An additional 380,000 were to be furloughed, meaning they will stay home without pay. The Senate had already passed legislation ensuring that workers will receive back pay, and the House was likely to follow suit.

No one knew how long the closures would last. Unlike other shutdowns, this one seemed to lack urgency, coming during the long holiday weekend after Trump had already declared on Monday, Christmas Eve, a federal holiday. Rather than work around the clock to try to end the shutdown, as they had done in the past, the leaders of the House and the Senate effectively closed up shop. But they didn't rule out action if a deal were struck.

"Listen, anything can happen," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters after he closed the Senate's rare Saturday session hours after it opened.

But after ushering Vice President Mike Pence through the Capitol for another round of negotiations, the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, said a quick end to the shutdown was "not probable".

At the White House, Trump hosted a lunch on Saturday with conservative lawmakers, including House Freedom Caucus chiefs Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio, and several senators. Absent from the guest list were GOP leaders or any Democrats, who would be needed for a deal.

"I am in the White House, working hard," tweeted the president, who canceled his Florida holiday getaway to his club Mar-a-Lago due to the shutdown. First lady Melania Trump was flying back to Washington to be with her husband.

Trump's re-election campaign sent out a fundraising email late on Saturday launching what he called "the most important membership program ever－the OFFICIAL BUILD THE WALL MEMBERSHIP". The president urged donors to sign up.

With Democrats set to take control of the House on Jan 3, and Speaker Paul Ryan on his way out, the shutdown was providing a last gasp of the conservative majority before the new Congress.

The shutdown also helped pushed Wall Street into another rout on Friday, ending its worst week in a decade.

"Oh I think it's ridiculous. It's unnecessary," Philip Gibbs, a retired business professor from South Virginia, said of the shutdown.

Jeffrey Grignon, a Wisconsin healthcare worker, said the politicians "need to stop acting like children" and do the work they were elected to do.

Another visitor, Howard Vander Griend, 57, predicted Trump will come out a winner from the budget impasse.

"I don't think the shutdown will pressure president Trump at all," said Vander Griend, of Tennessee. "So I think he will get what he wants and I think that's a good thing."

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer blamed the president for provoking the latest furlough.

"The Trump shutdown isn't over border security; it's because President Trump is demanding billions of dollars for an expensive, ineffective wall that the majority of Americans don't support," Schumer said.

AP/AFP