.ON DECEMBER 6TH Republicans turned down President Joe Biden's ask for $106bn of backing, most of it to assist branch Ukraine, on the manner that its provisions to get America's southerly border carried out certainly not go far good enough. A group of senators currently seem to be near to striking a bipartisan package on migration rules, believed to include tougher policies as the cost of Republican support. But it appears most likely to be defeated in the House of Agents. On January 14th Mike Johnson, the House audio speaker, pointed out that purposeful boundary reform will need to stand by up until a Republican politician was actually president. Yet on January 17th, after a meeting with Mr Biden, he suggested that he might be open to a trade-off after all. Is one likely?