Shutdown's economic hit disclosed as border talks are set to begin

Federal employees returning to work step out of the Federal Triangle Metro station Monday in Washington. Credit: Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla
WASHINGTON — As a bipartisan group of lawmakers prepares to meet on Wednesday to negotiate a new border security spending deal to prevent another government shutdown, President Donald Trump has placed the odds of the group delivering a deal he’d accept at “less than 50-50.”
The bipartisan effort aimed at avoiding another shutdown comes as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a report on Monday indicating the 35-day shutdown that ended on Friday had cost the U.S. economy $3 billion and slowed economic growth.
Trump, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Sunday evening, said he had low expectations that the group of 17 congressional leaders would be able to generate a proposal that includes the full $5.7 billion he has been seeking for a southern border wall, and he did not discount the possibility of declaring a national emergency to direct taxpayer dollars for the wall.
"I personally think it's less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board," Trump told the paper. He was referring to the panel that includes nine Democrats and eight Republicans who are tasked with negotiating a border security deal before Feb. 15, when a temporary spending measure signed on Friday is set to expire.
Asked by the Journal whether he would be willing to accept less than $5.7 billion for the wall, Trump said: “I doubt it.”
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, speaking Monday at the first White House press briefing of the year, said, “The President doesn’t want to go through another shutdown,” but she did not explicitly rule out the possibility when repeatedly pressed by reporters.
“That’s not the goal, the goal is border security and protecting the American people,” Sanders said.
As hundreds of thousands of federal employees returned to work on Monday, a report by the Congressional Budget Office found that the economy lost $11 billion during the five-week shutdown. About $8 billion of that is expected to be recovered as nearly 800,000 affected federal workers receive back pay and resume their spending, but $3 billion of that is likely never to be recovered, according to the report.
The report also indicated “significant” residual impacts of the shutdown in the private-sector as businesses struggled to secure permits and access to federal loans.
"Some businesses could not obtain federal permits and certifications, and others faced reduced access to loans provided by the federal government. Such factors were probably beginning to lead firms to postpone investment and hiring decisions," the report states.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow downplayed the CBO report, telling reporters the Trump administration “frequently” challenges the office’s assessments. "There's certainly no permanent damage to the economy," he said.
Kudlow said the main economic impact was on an “individual” level, referring to the furloughed workers and contractors.
“The hardships for individuals was always the key problem here in my judgment," he said. " . . . Those individual hardships were the biggest issue. I think everybody is glad we can reopen and put those back to work."
Sanders pushed back on criticism from immigration hard-liners who have denounced Trump for reopening the government without getting any funding for a border wall.
“Negotiations are still ongoing,” she said. “And I would argue that conservatives that actually have influence have supported the president throughout this process.”
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