The dollar amount isn't what is unreasonable about Trump's hostage taking.

comet hits Earth?

In West Virginia?

Which means the Democrats muddy the waters by saying the wall is a waste of money. They would be opposed if it costs ten dollars and they hurt themselves when they don't say so.

Is this the Dom's Pony gimmick? Yes, it is known that Dems are bad at messaging.

**** your wall. Seriously.

It’s never happening.

Hmm, did anything change in the last year?

Might have to make a different deal now that he has to win D house as well a few D Senators.

Several polls have blame for trump’s shutdown shifting 4 points towards trump.

Good god I thought we had eradicated all of these idiots.

Dems are just lucky the wall is bad on both moral and utilitarian grounds so they have their choice of picking which way they want to go.

I don’t see how dems lose this political fight

60% of people oppose the wall
Congress passed a clean bill to open the government
Trump is horrible at messaging

The only people the dems are losing too are the deplorables who would never vote for them anyway.

I think he'd give permanent daca for the 5.7 billion now

Folks, don't let them gaslight you.

3.5 billion will never be enough for them. 5.7b will never be enough. Only an entire wall with barbed wire, drones and armed guards every 100 feet will satisfy them. The idea that giving some money to the wall and then the border is "secure enough" from the rapists and criminals is pure fiction. They will forever complain that they need more $ to finish the wall and keep America safe. The next budget impasse will be the same thing all over again. They will tell you how they compromised last time, this time you owe them the rest of the wall. They will tell you how not spending more on the wall would waste the previous funding for the wall, ad nauseum.

That isn't enough. They also want the deportation force to round up 11 million people with no regard for due process or humanitarian concerns.

Yes, deplorableness has no limits.

One counter-strategy (if you want to call it that) is to draw a line in the sand, especially in the current political environment.

That's why the wall is a non-starter. To many Dems, Trump's Wall is the moral equivalent (gateway) of Hitler's concentration camps.

Mets,

Go back to POG. This is where the adults discuss Trump

Some old school pogger smack talk, I like it.

Trump won't back down until Fox tells him to back down.

awval loves this situation because as far as he sees it, it's all working out great for him.

Don Young isn't in the freedom caucus, but he's definitely on the cranky side. Of course, Alaska needs government services and resources more than just about anywhere.

Though the above analysis totally ignores the Senate. Now that the battle lines have shifted since the ****** UNANIMOUS VOTE* in december, Mitch isn't leaving trump's side soon. But there are rifts in the caucus:

Gardner
Capito
Collins
Murkowski

all are ready to open the government, so that's 51. I've seen Lamar!, Graham, Tillis, Portman all listed as names open to discussion. But no way there's currently 67 senators, let alone 60 senators.

He's gonna have to check with Ann Coulter too.

Unless I'm mistaken, if the quartet of Gardner/Collins/Murkowski/Capito really wanted to, they could announce that they were switching parties for a few days and force a vote on the house bill.

I'm guessing the 1 million + Republicans working for the federal government (not even counting contractors and families) are quickly realizing the wall really isn't that important to them.

Republicans are cracking, dems are not. I can't see any conceivable way that trend will reverse. I guess Dems could try to work with some moderate Repubs to give Trump a way to save face but not give him the wall.