The U.S. economy lost $3.6 billion by Jan. 11, according to an S&P Global Ratings report, which suggests that by the end of the next two weeks, the economy will have lost more than the price of President Donald Trump’s requested border wall.
Having lost just over $3.5 billion by Friday, the 21st day of the partial government shutdown, the S&P says that roughly $1.2 billion a week for another two weeks would “[exceed] the $5.7 billion requested for the proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.”
“The longer this shutdown drags on, the more collateral damage the economy will suffer,” the agency said in a news release.
As of Saturday, the partial government shutdown, which began on Dec. 22, is the longest in the country’s history. (RELATED: Trump Cancels Trip To Switzerland Over Border Security)
Trump and the White House have pushed to cast blame on the Democrats for not agreeing to pass legislation to fund the $5.7 billion wall. Trump reiterated this claim in a Monday tweet, saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could end the shutdown “in 15 minutes.”
Nancy and Cryin’ Chuck can end the Shutdown in 15 minutes. At this point it has become their, and the Democrats, fault!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2019
Trump also told reporters Monday that he would not be declaring a national emergency at the southern border to obtain the funding without Congressional approval.
“I’m not looking to call a national emergency. This is so simple we shouldn’t have to,” the president told reporters as he departed the White House for New Orleans.
Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia told WMAL’s “Mornings on the Mall” that he’s talked to other Democrats, and they privately feel the country needs a physical barrier along the border.
LISTEN: @RepRiggleman On #Shutdown: Moderate Democrats Have Told Me That ‘I Just Wish He [Trump] Said Physical Barrier And Not Wall, I Could Probably Vote For It.'” @WMALDC #MOTM @Thedcvince #va #borderwall https://t.co/jWE1xFkfrr
— WMAL DC (@WMALDC) January 14, 2019
“I have talked to other Democrats … a lot of these moderate Democrats see that it has gone on way too long,” the Congressman said, adding that one Democrat in particular said to him, “I just wish you said physical barrier and not ‘wall’ … and then we could vote for it.”
Democrats have thus far refused to budge from their proposed offer of $1.6 billion for some sort of barrier, and Pelosi reportedly told Trump earlier in January in the Situation Room that even if he reopened the government, they would not negotiate.
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