(Credits: Jim LoScalzo – Pool via CNP/Shutterstock)
President Donald Trump will meet with Republicans and Democrats on Monday in a desperate bid to avoid a complete government shutdown.
Trump needs to sign a Congress approved government funding legislation by Tuesday night or he faces shuttering offices and putting federal staff on furlough.
Republicans are daring Democrats to vote against legislation that would keep government funding mostly at current levels, but Democrats are using one of their few points of leverage to demand Congress take up legislation to extend health care benefits.
JD Vance said the ‘Democrats had a gun to the head of the American people’.
He told reporters: ‘If you look at the original thing they did with this negotiation, it was a $1.5 trillion spending package basically saying to the American people, we want to give massive amounts of money, hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal aliens for their health care while Americans are struggling to pay their health care bills.
‘We told them it was absurd. And now they come in here and saying that if you don’t give us everything that we want, we’re going to shut down the government. We think that’s preposterous.’
The showdown comes after Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree on a plan to end the war in Gaza.
Trump on Monday laid out a 20-point plan for ending the Israel-Hamas war and establishing a postwar governance in war-battered Gaza. Trump’s plan would establish a temporary governing board that would be headed by Trump and include Tony Blair.
The plan does not require people to leave Gaza and calls for the war to end immediately if both sides accept it.
It also calls for all remaining hostages to be released by Hamas within 72 hours of Israel accepting the plan.
‘I think we are beyond very close,’ Trump said at the start of a news conference with Netanyahu where he detailed the plan. ‘We’re not quite finished. We have to get Hamas.’
‘If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it and then do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself,’ Netanyahu said. ‘This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done.’
The president went on to urge Palestinian people to take responsibility ‘for their destiny’ and embrace his peace proposal.
Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief presented Trump’s proposal to Hamas negotiators, who are now reviewing it in ‘good faith’.
The White House talks, and apology from Netanyahu, come at a tenuous moment.
Israel is increasingly isolated, losing support from many countries that were long its steadfast allies. At home, Netanyahu’s governing coalition appears more fragile than ever. And the White House is showing signs of impatience.