ELECTION/GOP/GOVERNMENT/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “All summer, congressional GOP leaders have touted their success passing spending bills before the Sept. 30 funding deadline, a rare feat in this partisan age that they’ve even highlighted on the campaign trail. But President Donald Trump just doesn’t care. He wants his wall, and he wants it yesterday. Trump on Thursday [9-20-18] morning once again publicized his eagerness for a shutdown fight, seeming to question GOP leaders’ strategy to delay the showdown until after the consequential midterms. Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have said the president agrees with their plan to postpone the fight with Democrats and pass as many bipartisan bills as possible before Election Day. But Trump called those very carefully crafted legislative packages ‘ridiculous’…Trump’s comments come just over a week before the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30, when the government runs out of money. GOP leaders next week plan to send those ‘ridiculous’ appropriations bills, including a package funding the departments of Defense, Labor and Health and Human Services, to the Oval Office.”
–Rachel Bade, “Trump ramps up shutdown talk ahead of midterms,” Politico, September 20, 2018 10:09 am