Trump defiant as deadlines loom on budget, immigration
 

WASHINGTON: Bitterly divided US lawmakers faced a shrinking window Monday to reach elusive deals on immigration and federal spending, as President Donald Trump complained he is getting zero cooperation from Democrats.
Trump vowed during his State of the Union address last week to ?extend an open hand? to both parties in pursuing an immigration deal that shields 1.8 million undocumented migrants from deportation ? in exchange for curbs on legal immigration.
But his proposal has been savaged by Democrats, and Trump?s ?open hand? was soon wagging an accusatory finger at an opposition he accuses of refusing to help replace the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) before a March deadline.
?Any deal on DACA that does not include STRONG border security and the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time,? Trump tweeted Monday, referring to his long-sought wall on the US border with Mexico.
?March 5th is rapidly approaching and the Dems seem not to care about DACA. Make a deal!?Congress has also been haggling over spending caps for domestic programs and the military, as lawmakers seek to finalize a budget for the remainder of 2018.
Republican leaders have already acknowledged they will not meet Thursday?s deadline for a spending bill, and will have to pass yet another stopgap measure ? with help from Democrats ? to avoid a new government shutdown.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said while both sides were ?making progress,? a temporary spending bill was necessary to keep the lights on in Washington.?We?re still negotiating the contents and the duration of that,? he said.
Lawmakers are smarting from an embarrassing three-day shutdown last month, when Democrats refused to back a spending measure that did not address the situation of the ?Dreamers? ? hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the country as children.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said this time he did not expect a repeat of the shutdown, for which both camps have traded blame.?There?s no education in the second kick of a mule,? the Kentucky lawmaker said.
Complicating the legislative schedule, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has warned Congress that the Treasury has only enough cash to pay its bills through February 28, without hitting the debt limit and using extraordinary measures to keep payments flowing.
That is earlier than expected, the Congressional Budget Office said, because last year?s $1.5 trillion tax cut is resulting in less federal revenue. The crammed to-do list is further jeopardized by the partisan feuding gripping Washington over an explosive Republican memorandum that Trump declassified on Friday.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes argues in the document that the FBI engaged in abuse of power by relying on unsubstantiated evidence to authorize surveillance of a Trump campaign aide.In a strongly worded letter to the president, top Democrats including congressman Adam Schiff warned of ?a constitutional crisis? should he use the memo as a pretext to fire the special prosecutor heading an investigation into possible collusion between Trump?s campaign and Moscow.

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