Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer. And welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing,

sponsored by Stop the Hit. And I'm Jake Sherman. The Federal Reserve will announce today whether it will

continue to hike interest rates. That'll come at 2.30. The president has urged the Fed to lay off

another hike, but the FT writes that since Fed officials have already signaled they will boost rates

by a quarter point,

if they didn't, it would look skittish and would set a downbeat signal about the economic outlook.

Here's the latest in the government funding debate.

We are basically 65 hours from a government shutdown.

And here are the dynamics after a day of reporting on Capitol Hill.

Trump is a bit player.

The White House has clearly decided it

wants to be on the sidelines for this fight. Democrats offered two pathways in the Oval Office

last week, and the administration hasn't responded to either of those. And yesterday, Sarah Huckabee

Sanders, took the position that they'll have to see what the Senate can produce, and then Trump will

decide what to sign. It's a curious stance, but they clearly want to see what the Senate can produce and then Trump will decide what to sign.

It's a curious stance, but they clearly want some space from this deal and to set up the public

position that the president has no choice but to sign whatever Congress produces late Friday.

Senior White House officials have told us the following things.

A shutdown is inevitable because the president will hold strong. He wants a seven-bill omnibus with $1.6 billion in border security, and he'll declare that a victory. He wants a short-term deal. He does not want a short-term deal, and he'll see what the Senate produces. The Senate is talking, but not getting too far. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer discussed a seven-bill deal that would fund government for a year,

but it also included a billion-dollar pot of money that Trump could use for his immigration policies.

That money could not be used to buy a wall, but Democrats say it could be used for things like detention bed,

so they aren't much interested in approving it.

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