Top Trump Aide Ready to Trade DACA for Tax Cuts, Not Wall or RAISE Act
President Donald Trump’s top congressional aide is prioritizing a new “DACA” amnesty and a tax cut ahead of Trump’s promised border wall, according to news reports.
The congressional relations aide, Marc Short, told reporters September 12 that he is not asking Democrats for any concessions — such as funding for a border wall or passage of the RAISE Act — as they draft an expensive new amnesty for many younger illegals, including the 800,000 illegals who are covered by former President Barack Obama’s DACA amnesty since 2012.
“We’re interested in getting border security and the president has made the commitment to the American people that a barrier is important to that security,” Short said, according to TheHill.com. “Whether it’s part of DACA or another legislative vehicle, I don’t want to bind us into a construct that would make the conclusion on DACA impossible.”
During the breakfast, Short touted the importance of a tax cut. “It is essential to us — right now,” he said.
USA Today reported:
“We are most interested in getting border security, and the president has made a commitment to the American people that he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of border security,” Short told reporters at a Christian Science Monitorbreakfast in Washington.
“Whether or not that is part of a DACA equation or whether or not that’s another legislative vehicle, I don’t want to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on DACA impossible,” he said.
“The president is also interested, as he said, in solving the issue of DACA” and “believes this is an issue Congress has failed on,” Short said.
Marc Short on #borderwall: "I don't want us to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on #DACA impossible. pic.twitter.com/zdBUdgYwge
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 12, 2017
Even as Short offered to support the Democrats’ top legislative priority for 2017, gratis, he also said that the president wants Democrats to fund his top-priority demand for a border wall, which was the key element of the president’s unprecedented race for the White House.
According to TheHill.com, “The president is not backing off a border wall. The president is committed to sticking by the commitment that a physical structure is needed….whether that is part of a DACA package or another package, I won’t prejudge that today, but he’s committed to getting that wall built.”
However, many top Democrats — and many of the Democrats’ constituency groups — have repeatedly said they oppose construction of a border fence. Also, Democrats have a huge incentive to oppose the border wall because Trump’s failure to build the wall will cripple his reelection chances in 2020.
Trump’s 2020 chances will be even worse if he also accepts a wage-lowering amnesty as a trade for the corporate tax cut.
Read the rest here.
