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Trump opposes including Obamacare subsidies in spending bill - Mulvaney

FILE PHOTO: White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney speaks about of U.S. President Donald Trump's budget in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, U.S. on March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will not agree to a Democratic demand that subsidies for Obamacare be included in a must-pass spending bill in Congress, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Tuesday. Asked in an interview on CNN if Trump would back putting the Obamacare payments in the legislation to the keep the government open past Friday, Mulvaney said: "No." He said the White House had offered to include the Obamacare subsidies if Democrats agreed to funding for a wall on the border with Mexico. "We made it very clear early on that yeah, OK if you want to talk about those payments to the insurance companies, we'll trade you a dollar for dollar on bricks and mortar for the wall, but they said no to that and we agreed to put that off for another day ...," he said. (Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Sandra Maler)