纽约时报 特朗普一意孤行 政府势必继续停摆(1)（在线收听）

Shut down is set to last for days, as Trump digs in

特朗普一意孤行，政府势必继续停摆

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Katy Rodgers

文/雪莉·盖·斯托伯格，凯蒂·罗杰斯

As the White House and Democrats remained locked in a standoff over funding for President Trump’s border wall,

由于白宫和民主党在是否为总统的修筑边境墙方案提供资金一事上仍然僵持不下，

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, sent his colleagues home for the Christmas holiday on Saturday,

周六，共和党领袖、参议员米奇·麦康奈尔便遣散其同僚回家过圣诞节了，

virtually ensuring that the government will remain partially shuttered for at least several more days.

此举无异于证实了政府部分机构将继续停摆数日。

Mr. McConnell’s adjournment of the Senate until Thursday came after a frenzied day of negotiations in Washington and conflicting signals from the White House.

就在麦康奈尔将参议院休会至周四前夕，华盛顿曾上演了一天激烈的谈判，白宫发出的信号也是前后矛盾。

Around the country, the partial shutdown, which began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and affects roughly one-quarter of the federal government,

这一局部停摆，始于周六凌晨00:01且波及了联邦政府将近四分之一的部门，

deprived 800,000 workers of their pay and was visible at places like national parks, where sites were unstaffed or, in some cases, closed.

已经剥夺了全国将近80万人的工资，其影响众目昭彰，尤其是国家公园之类的地方，这些地方已经出现了人手不足，甚至是关门歇业的情况。

Mr. Trump is demanding $5 billion for the “big, beautiful wall” he promised to build at the southern border,

特朗普声称需要50亿美元来修建他承诺在南部边境修筑的“高大而漂亮的边境墙”，

and in a conference call with reporters, administration officials insisted that he would accept nothing less.

而且，在与记者的一次电话会议上，政府官员坚称在这一金额上，特朗普不接受任何折扣。

But even as they spoke, Vice President Mike Pence was on his way to the Capitol to present an offer to the top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York.

然而，就在他们谈话期间，副总统迈克·彭斯已经在前往国会的路上，准备向参议院民主党领袖、纽约州参议员查克·舒默提交一份提案。

Those talks, however, appeared to make little headway.

然而，他们的谈判似乎并没有取得什么进展。

Mr. Pence was tight-lipped as he left Mr. Schumer’s office — “We’re still talking,” he said —

离开舒默办公室时，彭斯对他们的谈话内容守口如瓶——他只说：“我们还在协商”。——

while a spokesman for Mr. Schumer, Justin Goodman, pronounced the two sides “very far apart.”

舒默的发言人贾斯汀·古德曼说则透露，双方“分歧很大”。

Mr. McConnell then announced the Senate’s adjournment and left the Capitol to fly home to Kentucky for the holiday.

随后，麦康奈尔宣布参议院休会，继而便离开了国会，准备乘飞机回肯塔基州过圣诞节。

With lawmakers cleared out of Washington and no end to the impasse in sight,

随着议员们陆续离开华盛顿，目前的僵局依然出路渺茫，

some speculated that it would be left to Democrats to reopen the government when they take over the House next month.

一些人猜测，要等到下个月民主党接管众议院时政府才会重新开放。

In an interview Saturday morning, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democrats’ nominee to be speaker, vowed that they would do just that.

民主党提名的众议院议长佩洛西在周六上午接受采访时承诺，他们一定会这么做。

“We have certainty,” Ms. Pelosi declared. “We will end this the first week in January.”

“我们有把握，”佩洛西女士宣称。“我们将在明年1月的第一周结束这一局面。”

The shutdown that began Saturday was the third of Mr. Trump’s 23 months in office and an ignominious end to a year that began much the same way, with a three-day government shutdown in January.

周六开始的政府停摆已经是特朗普上任以来的23个月时间里的第三次停摆了，也给今年画上了一个耻辱的句号，因为就在今年年初，政府也曾以同样的方式停摆了三天。

The latest breakdown, which hinges almost entirely on the impulses of a mercurial president, only added to the sense that,

这次歇业，几乎完全是善变的总统一时冲动一手造成的，更是加深了人们的印象，

as Senator Claire McCaskill, the departing Democrat from Missouri, said in her recent farewell speech,

那就是，正如即将卸任的密苏里州的民主党参议员克莱尔麦卡斯基尔在最近的告别演说中所说的那样，

“something is broken, and if we don’t have the strength to look in the mirror and fix it, the American people are going to grow more and more cynical.”

“有东西坏了，如果我们没有能力进行自我反省，然后修复它，美国人民还会变得更加愤世嫉俗。”