Pence leading shutdown talks with congressional staffers

With many federal workers frozen out of the jobs and vacationers blocked from public attractions their tax dollars pay for, talks between White House officials and congressional aides kicked off Saturday aimed at ending a government shutdown that President Donald Trump has said could last years.

In what has become a winter of discontent, negotiations are at an impasse over Trump's demands for USD 5.6 billion to fund a wall at the US-Mexico border.

Trump, who was not expected to participate in the discussions hosted by Vice President Mike Pence in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, spent the morning tweeting about border security.

Showing little empathy for the hundreds of thousands furloughed or working without pay, Trump declared without citing evidence that most are Democrats.

He also asserted: "I want to stop the Shutdown as soon as we are in agreement on Strong Border Security! I am in the White House ready to go, where are the Dems?"
One Democrat, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, said in his party's weekly radio address that the shutdown "is part of a larger pattern of a president who puts his personal whims and his effort to score political points before the needs of the American people...He is pointing fingers at everyone but himself."