Mark Meadows: Wall May Have to Wait to Avoid Government Shutdown

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is signaling that members of the House Freedom Caucus, which he chairs, are willing to pass a Continuing Resolution to temporarily fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown, even if it does not include funding for a wall on the U.S. southern border.

“In talking to a number of my members, if there was a vote for a continuing resolution next week that did not include border wall funding, the majority of those members would be supportive of that,” Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told ABC News‘ Jonathan Karl and Rick Klein on the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast.

This position is at odds with President Trump and the message Meadows sent during an interview with Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel.

“Last week, at a campaign rally in Phoenix, Trump suggested that he would allow a shutdown to occur if Congress does not include appropriations for his signature campaign promise as part of a funding measure,” ABC reported.

“Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” said Trump.

Meadows told Breitbart that it is imperative there be funding for President Donald Trump’s planned wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

“Mr. President start a Go Fund Me Page . . .”

The wall is not going to be built. The Democrats an the GOP leadership are against it as is the GOP donor base. The delay game is in process. Ryan and McConnell will exclude funding from whatever budget compromise is worked out with the Dems in order to get a budget or continuing resolution passed this year. Next year is an election year and they will claim it is too controversial to pass in an election year. Even if the GOP retains control of Congress in 2018, the leadership will continue to block the wall.

It is clear Trump cannot deliver on his promise to make Mexico pay for the wall. Even if he finds a source of private funding, leftist organizations will use the federal courts to block construction. There are enough Obama appointees in the judiciary to go judge shopping. Judges and lawyers can play the delay game too, tieing it up for years before an appeal can reach the Supreme Court. Look at how the courts were used to kill the nuclear power industry.

Trump was not prepared to staff his administration on Election Day so he could hit the ground running on Inauguration Day. He has still not sent to the Senate nominees for political appointments necessary to push through an agenda. Without his own people in place the bureaucracy, Democrats, and the GOP leadership have put him on the defensive and effectively killed his agenda.

Big initiatives, are accomplished in the first year of a new president’s term. In the second year Congressmen are avoiding controversy as they run for reelection. Normally the president’s party loses seats in the midterms so the president has even less ability to push his agenda in year three. In year four the president and Congress are either focused on the reelection campaign or the president is a lame duck.

Controversial legislation is difficult to get through Congress in the best of times. Even Obama had a tough time getting Obamacare passed in his first year with Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress and the full support of the Democrat leadership. Without the support of the leadership of his party in Congress it is virtually impossible for a president to get any legislation the leadership doesn’t like through the legislative process.

We saw that in the Obamacare repeal travesty which was orchestrated by Ryan and McConnell. We can’t lay the blame solely on McCain. McCain enjoyed sticking it to Trump by voting against repeal/replace and McConnell facilitated McCain’s victory over Trump by letting McCain cast the last vote in dramatic fashion. However if McCain had voted in favor of repeal, McConnell had other GOP senators who would have voted no. Heller, Flake, Sasse, Corker, Graham, Tillis, and a few others would have cast the decisive vote if McCain hadn’t. Note that McConnell and Ryan kept a straight repeal vote from occurring.

The wall is dead, O’care repeal is dead. The budget will be another continuing resolution. Congress has not moved on tax reform or infrastructure. Sessions is ineffective at Justice, Bannon is gone, Ivanka and Jared are Trump’s key advisors and they have zero power inside the beltway plus they are globalists. Mueller is running free to create havoc for years. Most important, the GOP leadership is clearly not afraid of Trump voters. The swamp is winning.

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