 Happy Thursday and welcome back to On The Money. I'm Sylvan Lane, and here's your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. See something I missed? Let me know at slane@thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N. Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@thehill.com, vneedham@thehill.com, njagoda@thehill.com and nelis@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis. THE BIG DEAL--Schumer says Dems won't budge on Trump wall demand: Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) on Thursday declared that Democrats will not provide any more funding for a border wall and are willing to wait until January, when a Democratic majority in the House will give them more leverage, to deal with the issue. "I want to be crystal clear. There will be no additional appropriations to pay for the border wall. It's done," Schumer declared on the Senate floor. Parts of the government will shut down after Dec. 21 if a new funding bill isn't signed into law. The sticking point has been Trump's demands for $5 billion in funding for his border wall. Schumer has since said he would back keeping funding at 2018 levels, which would provide about $1.3 billion for border fencing. Democrats believe they don't have to give any ground and that Republicans will get blamed for a partial government shutdown after Trump declared during a televised exchange with Schumer and the likely next Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), that he would accept responsibility for a shutdown. "I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down," Trump said at the White House meeting. Republicans stunned and scared for 2019: Republican lawmakers are struggling to coordinate their message with President Trump heading into a divided Congress after he pulled the rug out from them once again by declaring he would be "proud" to shut down the government. Trump shocked Republicans, who were preparing to blame Schumer (D-N.Y.) for a potential partial shutdown, when he said he would take sole responsibility for shuttering federal agencies if Congress doesn't meet his demand for $5 billion in wall funding. The blow-up left GOP senators perplexed and worried about what's in store for them over the next two years as they battle House Democrats. Alexander Bolton tells us why here. GOP senator floats options to prevent shutdown: Republicans are floating multiple options to prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin one week from Saturday. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said several ideas had been "floated around" ahead of the Dec. 21 deadline. "There's a lot of possibilities," Shelby said. None have been taken to the White House, he added. Shelby outlined several ideas that would keep the government open for a short time and allow talks on a longer deal to continue. - One idea would be to fund the government through the day after Christmas, which would allow people to go home for the holidays. "You could move it to the day after Christmas, that way people get to go home. That's one scenario that's been floated around," he said.
- Another option would be to fund the government through Jan. 3, the last date Republicans will still have control of both the House and Senate.
- He also suggested a longer funding bill that would keep the government open through the first two months of the year.
LEADING THE DAY Trump: GM 'is not going to be treated well' after announced layoffs: General Motors "is not going to be treated well" in the wake of its planned layoffs of American workers, but suggested that the lost jobs will be quickly replaced. "It doesn't really matter because Ohio is under my leadership from a national standpoint," Trump said in an interview with Fox News. "Ohio's going to replace those jobs like in two minutes." The president expressed disapproval with the automaker's announcement last month that it intends to cut 15,000 jobs and close manufacturing sites in Lordstown, Ohio; Detroit-Hamtramck, Mich.; and Oshawa, Ontario in Canada, and auto parts factories in Warren, Mich., and White Marsh, Md. "To tell me a couple of weeks before Christmas that she's going to close in Ohio and Michigan, not acceptable to me," Trump said, referring to GM CEO Mary Barra. Brett Samuels has more here. Pelosi sees fierce resistance if Dems seek Trump's tax returns: Democrats will face fierce resistance from the White House when they seek to uncover President Trump's tax returns, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted Thursday. Pelosi, who is likely to become Speaker early next year, said the decision will ultimately fall to the Democratic leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has the unique power to request individual tax returns, including those of the president. "I think they see a path in that direction," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. "[But] I think it's a little more challenging than you might think." "Yes, there is popular demand for the Congress to request the president's tax returns. [Ways and Means] will have their path as we go forward," Pelosi continued. "I'm sure the White House will resist, and so the question is, where do we go from there?" Mike Lillis has more on the impending battle here. Top Lobbyists: The Hill's annual listing of Washington D.C.'s top lobbyists is back. Check out who made the list of our most distinguished and accomplished professionals from the influence world. Click here for the 2018 list. GOOD TO KNOW - The U.S. budget deficit soared to $205 billion in November, up 48 percent from the same month in 2017, according to a new report from the Treasury Department.
- House Democrats on Thursday offered a resolution that would overturn IRS guidance reducing donor disclosure requirements for some tax-exempt groups, a day after the Senate approved a measure to reverse the agency's guidance.
- Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into whether President Trump's inaugural committee misspent funds or accepted donations in exchange for access to the administration, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
- Aides have advised President Trump to stay out of the case involving a top Chinese technology executive, a source told The Wall Street Journal.
ODDS AND ENDS - The growth of solar power slowed in 2018's third quarter, a result that the industry blames on President Trump's tariffs for imported solar panels.
- Iranian-backed hackers targeted the personal email accounts of U.S. Treasury officials around the time President Trump reimposed sanctions on the country, according to an Associated Press report.
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