President Donald Trump’s Thursday morning tweet on the children’s health insurance program could derail Republican efforts to avoid a government shutdown Thursday.
CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018
Congressional Republicans originally sought to lure Democratic votes to any spending bill by adding a 6 year extension to the CHIP program. Democratic lawmakers have been wrestling with the choice to force a government shutdown over a failure to preserve Obama-era protections for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children or let the popular insurance program expire.
The spending bill was endorsed by the Trump administration with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders telling reporters “we would like to, again, get a budget deal done — a two-year budget deal, a clean budget deal — and then focus on negotiations, following that deal, with finding a permanent solution to DACA and responsible immigration reform. We’ve said that many times before. Our position has not changed.”
Trump’s tweet appears to endorse the Democratic position and could strip the powerful CHIP bargaining position Republican leaders have in spending negotiations and lead to an outright government shutdown Friday.
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