Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once again reiterated that another partial government shutdown may becoming, assuming congress is unable to provide a budget inclusive of his border wall proposal.
Negotiations at current have only included about half of the five billion dollars President Trump has sought to begin construction of the wall. Many have indicated that the cost for such a barrier would be far higher than that.
Even though money remains a question, Mulvaney was adamant that the president would be constructing his wall regardless.
“The president is going to build the wall,” said Mulvaney.
Mulvaney added, “We will take as much money as you can give us, and we will often find the money someplace else — legally — in other to secure that southern barrier. But this is going to get built with or without congress.”
Mulvaney was, however, unwilling to rule out yet another government shutdown, saying, “government shutdown is still technically on the table.”
“Let’s say that the hardcore left wing of the Democrat party prevails this negotiation and they put a bill on the president’s desk with, say, zero money for the wall or $800 million, some absurdly low number,” said Mulvaney. “How does he sign that? He cannot in good faith sign that?”
Mulvaney’s comments echo the President’s own last week, where the president claimed to not be willing to “take anything off the table” in these negotiations, including the possibly of declaring a national emergency.
“Well, I don’t — I don’t take anything off the table,” said Trump to Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan. “I don’t like to take things off the table. It’s that alternative. It’s national emergency, it’s other things and you know there have been plenty national emergencies called.”
This also echoes a previous statement by Mulvaney just two days after the previous shutdown ended, also on Face the Nation.
“He doesn’t want to shut the government down,” said Mulvaney. “Let’s make that very clear. He doesn’t want to declare a national emergency. What he wants to do is fix this the way that things are supposed to get fixed with our government which is through legislation.”
Congress has until the end of next week to provide the President with a budget proposal. It will them be up to President Trump to sign it to avoid another costly government shutdown.
View the entire exchange with Mulvaney below:
Image via screen capture from video source.