Locking up Trump, lawmakers only way to end shutdown impasse: GOP rep.
President Donald Trump and all members of Congress should be locked in a room and left unpaid until they reach a deal to end the longest ever US government shutdown, a Republican lawmaker has suggested.
“I really do believe that you should lock every member of Congress in a room, bring the president in, no phones, no pay. You’re not leaving until there’s white smoke,” Representative Lee Zeldin said Sunday.
“You need to negotiate, compromise with each other, with the president. I think you’d have a deal within maybe 45 minutes,” he added.
The New York lawmaker made the remarks after Democrats rejected an offer by Trump to end the shutdown, which began on December 22 over the president’s plea for $5.7 billion to build his controversial wall on the US-Mexico border.
In his proposal, Trump agreed to extend temporary protections for young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children -- known as Dreamers -- and individuals from some Central American and African nations, in exchange for the partial border wall funding.
The president also agreed to limit the wall to crucial parts of the border, where illegal immigration was a problem. He had originally pledged to extend the wall along the whole border, which is over 2,000 miles long.
Democrats, however, quickly rejected the deal, with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York emphasizing that Trump’s offering some protections for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) "in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also blasted Trump’s offer as a “non-starter.”
It's past time for @SpeakerPelosi to negotiate & compromise. She's admitted she won't even negotiate w/POTUS after the shutdown on increased $ to harden our border. Unacceptable. She doesn't have absolute power. No one does. Let's talk to each other & work it all out. No excuses!
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) January 19, 2019
The swift rejection of the deal meant that about 800,000 federal employees would remain unpaid or furloughed until the government is re-opened. They have already missed a paycheck as a result of the political row.
Zeldin expressed sympathy for federal workers, saying it was “crazy” that congress members were getting paid while border guards worked without pay.
“It’s difficult to miss one paycheck. It becomes increasingly difficult to miss a second paycheck,” he said. “It’s crazy to me that you have members of Congress getting paid while you have Coast Guardsmen who are not.”
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