Free Republic

President Donald Trump just blindsided Congress and found all the border wall money that he needs — and billions more. In a column from The American Thinker, conservative author Rovvy Lepor reveals that Congress has over one trillion dollars sitting in what he calls “unobligated balances.”[snip] It would not only fully fund the entire wall, but it also appears that there’s nothing Democrats could do to stop Trump. On top of that, a president using the unobligated funds to finance a project is hardly unprecedented, as detailed by Lepor in the piece above.

For five Congresses now, Portman, R-Ohio, has pushed a bill that would automatically renew government funding if Congress and the White House can’t reach a deal to pass appropriations bills by the beginning of the new fiscal year. This year, he’s got a new partner in the fight: Rep. Troy Balderson, a Zanesville Republican, introduced a House version of the bill late Friday, just as the latest latest shutdown was coming to an end. Their bills come with repercussions aimed at keeping Congress from just passing the same spending bills at last year’s levels without the sort of oversight that...

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise told Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" on Tuesday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to change her tone and start making "credible" compromises to avert another government shutdown over border wall funding. Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday invited President Trump to deliver the State of the Union address on Feb. 5, after refusing to allow him to appear in House chambers during the partial government shutdown. On Friday, both chambers of Congress passed a short-term spending bill to reopen the government through Feb. 15 -- but it includes no funding for a border wall....

Against a backdrop of jumbled boulders and spindly trees, former Joshua Tree National Park Supt. Curt Sauer joined dozens of people at a rally in this high desert enclave on Saturday to express their anger over the economic and physical damage caused by the partial government shutdown to the park and the surrounding community. President Trump signed a short-term spending bill on Friday that will reopen the government until Feb. 15. But the 35-day shutdown has already taken a heavy toll on the economy of this dusty refuge for nature lovers, rock climbers and artists at the main gateway to...

Even though the president has agreed to a three week break in America’s longest running partial shutdown, shutdowns provide some unique opportunities. Should some “unessential services” be permanently shut down or downsized? If something is non-essential, why is the government paying for it at all. There are exceptional government employees and leaders who are very capable and do their jobs effectively. But what if they are good at doing a job that is not necessary for government to do. It’s hard for any politician in Washington to take on government employees. They not only can demonstrate. They vote! Peter Drucker,...

The White House said on Friday night that Donald Trump will "move forward" with funding for a wall along the southern border "with our without the Democrats."Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee tweeted the warning while she defended the president against conservative criticism that he caved on wall funding in order to end the shutdown. In 21 days President @realDonaldTrump is moving forward building the wall with or without the Democrats. The only outstanding question is whether the Democrats want something or nothing https://t.co/dMaDfBOIuT— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 26, 2019 The president refused to characterize the deal as a "concession": I...

Standard  & Poor's is putting out a garbage estimate that the shutdown cost $6 billion.  I believe that is 3/100 of 1% of our $20-trillion economy.  Does anyone really think he can figure out the number accurately?  As with most things, these supposed "experts" just throw out a number, and the rest of the media repeat the numbers as if they were true with no questions asked.  S&P, Fitch, and Moody's couldn't even figure out that junk mortgages were going to go bad, or didn't care because they were making so much money from selling their souls. Standard  & Poor's is putting out a garbage estimate that the shutdown cost...

On Friday, President Donald Trump announced a deal between the White House and Congress to reopen the portion of federal government that had been shuttered since December. In making the announcement, the president thanked both Democrats and Republicans for reaching a deal as he praised the 800,000 federal workers who had been furloughed for their “patriotism” and dedication to the country. Much to the angst of his supporters, the 21-day stopgap funding measure POTUS agreed to sign does not include any money for additional border walls and barriers. But that’s because Democrats were demanding that the president reopen the government...

Donald Trump didn’t carry many parts of Texas’ heavily Democratic areas along the border with Mexico, but he won remote Hudspeth County thanks to people like Terry Rose. And the 71-year-old mechanic saw the longest shutdown in U.S. history as a campaign promise kept. “I want less government. That’s what we’re getting,” said Rose, who was having lunch with a group of friends in Fort Hancock, an enclave with fields of cotton, alfalfa and chili peppers just across the border from El Porvenir, Mexico. “I’m understanding about federal employees, but if you’re ‘non-essential’ it’s hard to feel too badly for...

It was as predictable as the sunrise – the second the “deal” was announced Friday to reopen the government, smug liberals took to social media to declare victory. And why not? They won. But what exactly did they win? And is the fight really over?What Democrats won is a continued unsecured border. Americans will continue to be victims of crimes, up to and including being murdered at the hands of people who shouldn’t be in the country in the first place, congratulations. Those criminals will continue to enjoy the protections of Democratic Party officials until they manage to cross the...

In our Principles of Microeconomics courses, we sometimes consider whether a firm should shut down some line of production. A firm shuts down when it ceases operations—when it closes down and stops its production. The firm stops spending money on everything except its fixed costs. A federal government “shutdown” has a completely different meaning. The Definition of a Government Shutdown There has been much handwringing over the current government shutdown that began on December 22 of last year. The Treasury Department, with its Daily Treasury Statements, has provided us with details regarding federal spending through January 18. So we have...

Democrats naturally are gloating, calling it a surrender and admonishing Trump to “learn his lesson” and acknowledge his defeat by the wise and all-knowing Nancy Pelosi. This certainly gives them a sugar high while providing evidence for future use that their priority is humiliating Trump rather than attending to the needs of border security. Nonetheless, as President Trump correctly noted in the Rose Garden address, it was an “agreement.” The Dems agreed to procedural rules that can be used to make the case for border barrier construction. The deal will be hashed out in the conference committee, which will then...

Did you hear the one about the TSA agent who stole $50,000 worth of electronics equipment from travelers by slipping iPads down his pants? Or the Phoenix-based TSA security director who deliberately increased screening wait times in order to justify increasing his own staff count? Or the TSA administrator who approved the practice of giving TSA trainees test answers in advance of their certification exams? ... The shutdown vividly demonstrates the need to fully privatize the Transportation Security Administration. Now there is the potential for a bipartisan consensus about doing just that. With a budget of $7.8 billion, TSA is...

America is full of visible and invisible walls. In the first half of the last century, our politics had been dedicated to tearing down the walls between classes, races and genders. And then in the second half of the century, radicals terrified of what that meant for their plans, began building them up again while adding new divisions until every city, workplace and even family is divided by many invisible walls. Walls represent divisions. Whether you support or oppose a particular wall depends on whether you believe a division is legally, morally or philosophically legitimate. The walls that the radicals...

The Wall—Trump Will Have the Last Laugh Most people think short term. They’re looking for quick fixes for their problems. A quick salve for their pain. They think in terms of wins and losses for every move they make. But occasionally, we’ll see someone who thinks more strategically. Someone who has tough enough skin to absorb the cruel insults of this world. Someone who looks at each situation and its challenges, and finds a way to achieve a positive outcome—for all parties, not just those on his “team.” President Trump is one such man. How do I know that? He...

Trump lost this shutdown battle because federal workers, such as those working in airports without pay, stopped showing up. Even if the law says certain essential workers must show up during a shutdown, if they are not getting paid, many will not. Any future shutdown must include funds to pay federal workers who are required to show up.The Federal government does a lot of things that are non-essential, such as operating national parks, funding scientific research, funding the arts through the NEA, giving "loans" through the Small Business Administration, etc. We can tolerate an indefinite government shutdown if and only...

I am glad the Schumer shutdown is over. I am glad federal workers will finally be paid. For weeks, Democrats held their paychecks hostage. Yesterday, I fought hard to immediately pay every single essential federal employee – every essential employee at the Coast Guard, the TSA, air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents, ICE agents, FBI agents, and those throughout law enforcement. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats cynically objected to that legislation and killed it on the Senate floor. The Democrats have claimed that, once the shutdown ends, they are willing to negotiate in good faith to secure the border. Given...

I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border Wall. This was in no way a concession. It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!

President Trump on Friday sought to defend his decision earlier that day to end the ongoing partial government shutdown without getting funding for his long-desired border wall. “I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border Wall. This was in no way a concession," Trump tweeted. "It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!” Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border...

Unknown to most Americans, a vast set of laws gives the president greatly enhanced powers during emergencies. President Donald Trump’s threats to bypass Congress and secure funding for a wall along the border with Mexico by declaring a national emergency are not just posturing. The Brennan Center, building on previous research, has identified 123 statutory powers that may become available to the president when de declares a national emergency, including two that might offer some legal cover for his wall-building ambitions (10 U.S.C. 2808 (a) and 33 U.S.C. 2293 on our list below). An additional 13 statutory powers become available...