Deal is reached

Nobody seems to be very happy about it.

They say when everyone is at least a little unhappy, that's when you know you have a good compromise. Sometimes it's much easier to make everyone a little unhappy, than it is to make everyone happy. Certainly in a case of political chicken where there are a couple of dozen "lines in the sand" many players are going to have to swallow their pride and let those lines evaporate.

All in all it's just $1.375 billion worth of bricks in the wall

So it turns out that Trump is going get $1.375 billion for the wall. This will allow approximately 55 miles of new fencing, and does not provide any limits on what sort of barrier is being built. Obviously 55 is not 200, but it's more than you could build with one dollar.

This represents an increase of 100% (double) of the funding Trump got from a GOP House and Senate last year. Apparently Pelosi is easier to work with than Ryan!

The media is attempting to sell this as a beat for Trump (because he wanted far more). I guess I should have expected that play.  But the truth here is that this is a much bigger loss for every progressive anti-Trumper in Congress who was willing to shut the government down for 35 days in order to block "any" money for a wall.

You will get ONE DOLLAR and like it!

Had Democrats offered this sort of money for a wall previously, they would have still probably gotten everything they did plus the protections for DACA and other endangered immigrants that the President had offered. As it is, they got nothing for those people in this deal.

Keep in mind that many Democrats had declared total and complete victory on this subject of the wall when the President signed the temporary deal that did not include any border barrier funding. They believed that they won the game of chicken, and proved that another shutdown would harm the President more than them. Make no mistake, this will seem like a giveaway for many of them.

As I have stated multiple times if you believe spending money on a border barrier is fundamentally immoral, then I don't see how it helps to say that you are only allowing 55 miles of immorality to be built instead of 200. Sometime there is no real  "compromise".

Democrats did give up their ridiculous demands for capping how many illegals could be arrested and detained for criminal activity taking place within the United States. That being said, the detention area is one where both sides are declaring some victory.

On the left, they are saying that the number of overall detention beds will drop by a few thousand, while on the right they are saying that the budget for detention beds was increased and that there is enough flexibility to increase the number by as much as five thousand more. I doubt anyone will take the time to follow up on who turns out to be right or wrong on that one.

I see no reason at this point to believe that both sides will not ultimately sign on to this deal. The Republicans in congress have no stomach for another fight. Pelosi has already given her blessing, and there has been no pushback at this point from the White House (who insists that they will continue to search elsewhere to supplement the money appropriated by Congress).