Kind says he’s looking for agreement to end shutdown

It’s a near impossible task, figuring out how to end the stalemate between President Donald Trump and Congress, on billions for a portion of the border wall.

Congressman Ron Kind of La Crosse was in the WIZM studio Monday morning. He said he’d like to know exactly what Trump is thinking, and if the president has information that Congress doesn’t have.

“The difficulty we have in this conversation is we don’t know what the president actually knows and what he wants,” Kind said. “He keeps shifting his demands all the time.”

Kind said that, even if Congress were to agree with $5 billion for a wall, the project is likely to cost $40 billion or more.

Like many, Kind is frustrated by the battle between Trump and Democrats in the House that has kept the government shut down for weeks.  

Kind is eager to meet this week with a group of Republicans, to see where some agreement could happen.

“We want to try and get into the same room with the group called the Tuesday Group — more pragmatic House Republicans,” Kind said. “I’m still one of the leaders of the new Democratic coalition, a group of more moderate, pragmatic House Democrats.

“Get us in the room, talking to each other, see if there is a bipartisan path forward.”

Of course, the border wall has become the only talking point for ending the government shutdown Trump created.

Kind claims neither party wants to budge. He thinks a solution to the standoff will require some members of Congress to defy “the base,” as he has tried to do in the past.

“We need more politicians that are willing to stand up to their own base, quite frankly,” Kind said. “And I, throughout the years, have been willing to do that.

“So, I take incoming from the far left and the far right from time to time.”

Kind added that one proposed agreement got votes from more than 90 Senators, but the White House “pulled the rug out” and wanted more support for a border wall.  

He said the bipartisan bill would have funded government services but the White House simply doesn’t want to alienate supporters demanding billions for a wall.

The Kind interview with Mike Hayes starts with about 22 minutes left in the show.