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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWith little to lose, Democrats cautiously share the driver's seat with Trump
By Paul Kane, Ed O'Keefe and Ashley Parker September 16 at 6:27 PM
Democratic lawmakers shut out of governance for much of this year now find themselves at the center of high-stakes negotiations with President Trump that could achieve a prize they have sought for nearly a decade: permanent legal status for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants.
For a small but vocal contingent of Democrats, these talks are fraught with peril, largely because of their total distrust of a man who began his presidential campaign two years ago describing illegal immigrants from Mexico as rapists. But for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), there is little to lose. If the deal falls apart and Trump returns to his pattern of insult-hurling and name-calling, the Democratic leaders will be right where they began no better and no worse. And a successful negotiation would achieve something they failed to pull off when their party controlled both Congress and the White House. It could also serve as a road map for more achievements to come.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Schumer said in an interview. We thought we had an opportunity to get something good done, and lets see what happens. Were very hopeful that they will keep their word.
Schumer and Pelosi are pressing ahead with the presidents top advisers, hoping to reach a deal in a matter of weeks to enshrine in law an Obama-era executive order called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It protects from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Trump has criticized DACA as executive overreach, but he has also expressed empathy for the young immigrants it protects.
There is one critical stumbling block to the whole effort to pass a Dream Act to replace DACA: how much additional border security and enforcement Trump will demand.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/with-little-to-lose-democrats-cautiously-share-the-drivers-seat-with-trump/2017/09/16/09eb2fca-9a47-11e7-87fc-c3f7ee4035c9_story.html
Voltaire2
(13,155 posts)This deal is going to come with a price.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)I'm thinking that the price will be a five year EXTENSION of the current DACA in exchange for PERMANENT tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations WITHOUT any requirement that those tax cuts result in hiring.
And of course that will result in further erosion of the Democratic Party's standing with the left.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)might be in order.
You know, those hundreds of thousands of people who did nothing wrong, and may be forcibly shipped to a country they know nothing about and in many cases don't even speak the language spoken there.
I don't know how anyone can speak so self-righteously against most deals that seek to avoid that fate for those people.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)to this problem? Like immediate citizenship. And not tying it to any sort of Republican wet dream involving tax cuts for the rich?
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)in 2010. He gave away permanent tax increases on the wealthy for temporary assistance for the long term unemployed. I suspect this will wind up like that. Permanent tax cuts for the wealthy exchanged for some temporary assistance for the Dreamers.