Dead in the water. That’s one way to describe Donald Trump’s latest “offer” to end the government shutdown. He trotted out at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon saying he was ready to make a compromise, but his demands haven’t changed. To put it more bluntly, the shutdown is no closer to ending than it was before the speech (watch above). It actually echoed, in some cases almost word for word, a lot of what the president said more than a week ago in the Oval Office. Here’s part of  the speech:

 “The plan includes $5.7 billion for a strategic deployment of physical barriers or a wall. This is not a 2,000 mile concrete structure from sea to sea. These are steel barriers in high priority locations. Much of the border is already protected by natural barriers such as mountains and water. We already have many miles of barrier, including 115 miles that we are currently building or under contract. It will be done quickly. Our request will add another 230 miles this year in the areas our border agents most urgently need. It will have an unbelievable impact. If we build a powerful and fully designed see-through steel barrier on our southern border, the crime rate and drug problem in our country would be quickly and greatly reduced.” 

The “new” offer that was added in would give Dreamers some temporary help. He said:

“Three years of legislative relief for 700,000 DACA recipients brought here unlawfully by their parents at a young age many years ago. This extension will give them access to work permits, social security numbers, and protection from deportation most importantly. Secondly, our proposal provides a three-year extension of temporary protected status or TPS. this means that 300,000 immigrants whose protected status is facing expiration will now have three more years.”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says “his proposal is a compilation of previously rejected initiatives.” Here is what else she said:

“Democrats were hopeful that the President was finally willing to re-open government and proceed with a much-need discussion to protect the border.

“Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives.  It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter.  For one thing, this proposal does not include the permanent solution for the Dreamers and TPS  (temporary protected status) recipients that our country needs and supports.

“Democrats support smart, effective border security solutions:

  • Increased infrastructure investments at our ports of entry including additional ports and roads;
  • Advanced technology to scan for drugs, weapons and contraband where the vast majority of drugs come in to our country and advanced technology to detect unauthorized crossings;
  • More customs personnel including filling the more than 3,000 customs and border patrol vacancies; and
  • More immigration judges.

“Next week, Democrats will pass a package of six bills agreed to by House and Senate negotiators and other legislation to re-open government so that we can fully negotiate on border security proposals.

“The President must sign these bills to re-open government immediately and stop holding the American people hostage with this senseless shutdown.  Each day he prolongs this needless crisis, Coast Guardsmen, FBI agents, border patrol officers, TSA agents, and hundreds of thousands more workers are forced to live without knowing how they can feed their families or pay their bills.

“The President has taken pride in shutting down government. Now, he must take action to open up government.”

Fact checkers are also on overdrive after this latest speech.

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