Mulvaney: Functioning Gov't Likely Done for 2018

It was already looking unlikely that all Congress and the White House wanted for Christmas was an open government, and now Mick Mulvaney is signaling that the government could stay shuttered until 2019, reports the Washington Post. "It’s very possible that this shutdown will go beyond the 28th and into the new Congress," the White House budget director told Fox News Sunday, adding that "This is what Washington looks like when you have a president who refuses to sort of go along to get along."

Mulvaney says the White House made Democrats an offer that backed off the $5 billion President Trump had been demanding for the border wall, and that "the ball is in their court." Democrats grab the gavel in the House on Jan. 3, and Nancy Pelosi says she'll push through a spending bill as soon as it's in her hand. That bill would drop $1.3 billion on border security and $0 on Trump's wall. (More government shutdown stories.)