Posted on 03/24/2018 3:26:05 PM PDT by zencycler
President Donald Trump briefly threatened to veto a giant spending bill on Friday and then reluctantly signed it to keep the military funded.
The lack of funding for a border wall with Mexico is likely one of the presidents biggest frustrations. Trump mentioned the wall when he threatened to veto the bill. The $1.3 trillion budget includes just $1.6 billion for wall construction along the southern border, far short of the $25 billion needed to accomplish Trumps signature campaign promise.
To make matters worse, the spending bill specifically prohibits Trump from building the kind of wall he wants. The president nevertheless celebrated the progress and pointed out that construction can begin immediately.
But Trump also dropped an eyebrow-raising hint that he could take an unprecedented option and build the wall using the enormous military budget.
I want to address the situation on border security, which I call national defense, Trump said. I call it stopping drugs from pouring across our border. And I call it illegal immigration. Its all of those things. But national defense is a very important two words. Because by having a strong border system, including a wall, we are in a position, militarily, that is very advantageous.
For the first time, Trump underlined the significance of the barrier as a military structure and a matter of national defense. Up to now, the president promoted the wall as a way to curtail illegal immigration and stop the deadly flood of illicit drugs. The introduction of the walls military function is significant, especially in terms of funding it.
Roughly half of the spending bill is dedicated to the military for a total of over $654 billion allotted to the Pentagons base budget and overseas counterinsurgency operations. Thats enough to build the wall 26 times.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
why don;t you wait to find out instead of keep posting negativity about the President. trust me I hear your frustration, but let us wait.
I wasn’t talking about Trump. I was talking about the Trump hater.
Interesting regarding “The Roosevelt Reservation”...
It only applied to “public lands” and not to private lands.
And I wonder why it did not include the State of Texas.
Maybe there were no public lands on the Texas/Mexico border in 1907?
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http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/trproclamations/758.pdf
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Yep and I agree
“given his slobbering over the DACA illegals, whose amnesty would turn Texas and other red or purple border states deep blue.”
Not necessarily true. We will need lots of people when the economy takes off. DACA people vetted over the proposed 12 years can help fill that need. Republicans can do Trump’s DACA bill, provide them good jobs, and earn their votes. Democrats lose.
Think strategically!
All I’m trying to say there is some money in the OB that was
passed to get all this started with. You don’t need the full
funding to get the processes in motion.
82 Billion in discretionary in Defense side, game, set, match
Extra in the Army budget as well as this is a national defense project
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has long managed construction along the border for a variety of Government Departments and Agencies, including the Military, Homeland Security and the Border Patrol. They provide the professional construction project management and contracting, while other Government customers come to them with requirements and funding.
They managed the earlier border efforts, like The Secure Fence Act of 2006. They also maintain open contract vehicles that are used for border barrier planning and construction, like the Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) for Horizontal Construction Services which they have for the various sectors of the border.
I don’t believe that it is possible that the Trump Administration made it through the transition to inauguration, without finding out exactly who in Government would be responsible for getting the wall built (USACE) - they must have been in regular communication ever since. They did not just fall off the turnip truck after this budget passed.
Weeks ago, Trump had a cabinet meeting televised, and as an aside, he turned to SecDef Mattis and said something to the effect that the Army Corps of Engineers need to get going, that they really need to step up their effort. I anticipate that there has been that kind of fire lit under their butts through the whole Chain of Command, from the president on down, during this whole Administration.
I can’t believe that people running USACE kept their jobs if they were not advancing the planning and preparations for border barriers. I can’t believe that the boss (Trump) was not checking on the progress, requiring updates. Trump’s Chief of Staff got promoted from Homeland Security. I don’t believe that would have happened if he did not have things hopping to get a wall built. Now General Kelly is an expert in the details of the wall plan, and has all the players on his speed dial. As a Four Star General, he sure knows how DOD’s budget and spending works as well. He is at Trump’s side for hours every day. I remember when the new Secretary of Homeland Security reported on her meeting with Trump. Her eyes widened as she said simply “He said get the wall built”.
If they just execute the plan as leaked in the first few months of the Administration (three phases), then the $1.6 billion authorized in this Omnibus would get them going on the first phase as planned anyway (several dozens of miles, starting around the urbanized areas of the Rio Grande Valley, San Diego and El Paso). If they do pull a fast one with a few billion from the DoD, we might see a few hundred miles get contracted before the Midterm election.
The specific language of of the omnibus authorized bollards (what Border Patrol wants anyway) for 33 miles in the Rio Grande Valley, 14 miles in San Diego, and hundreds of millions more dollars for unspecified barrier elsewhere - probably 80-100 miles total of high end barrier, like thirty foot bollards with paved patrol road.
Even that $1.6 billion in the Omnibus (now the worst case) will be a significant improvement on the border. But if there is a stealth money bomb in the DoD budget, then by now the Army Corps of Engineers should be well ready to get it contracted out and execute those funds in a matter of months.
I do hope this is his plan.
And you were saying Hillary had a 98% chance of winning just two years ago.
Seriously, that's what ZF was predicting ?
Nice lay down. I think any DOD excess will have to be repurposed by Congress to prevent augmentation of the original appropriation. Not many KOs would sign off on something that split the baby between different type appropriations.
At these door prices we may be in trouble. Take care and have a good one.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3642205/posts?
A certain percentage of people, like we see here on FR will suck it up, ignore what happened, and pretend it didnt happen. And Insut and criticize anybody that questions it all. Trump screwed up, face it, and either we ignore it or we speak up. If we ignore it, then all were doing is saying its perfectly fine. And if that is the case, you might as well write off any of the agenda you want it.
I figured out, I think, what Trump is up to. He is shaking things out, but I’m counting on Trump to pull things back together as he moves along.
Trump speed is the new normal. He sleeps 4 hours a day. He’s accomplished more in 13 months than most Presidents have in 8 years. Some call it flip-flopping, but thats not what it is. Trump is dodging and weaving through reality faster than the “reality” can react to disrupt his plans. “reality” being those inside the DC beltway leadership who are globalist, who will lose power and $$$ if Trump succeeds and We the People gain.
I was explaining this to my wife. This is a roller-coaster now. He is taking his bewildering art-of-the-deal campaign into politics, and for a lot of people, me included at times, it will be a rough ride.
Best presidency ever though! Just hang on. More winning is coming, but a lot of people are going to scream that its all over at EVERY turn.
Trump is like Jupiter weaving through the asteroid belt. Every president I’ve voted for was because they said they would do things. Trump is truly doing things.
Quite a few Navy Seabee Battalions, USAF Red Horse Squadrons and Army and Marine Corps Combat Engineering units ready for the challenge.
The Army Corp of Engineers and the Sea Bees could build the wall.
If you’d been around here long enough to have been with us on the streets of DC at the turn of the century, you’d know that much of what you just posted is clueless slander.
Would love to be the proverbial fly on the wall of some of those barracks this weekend ;-)
Oh, that! No, its not really a wall, its a military base, an 1800 mile long military base....
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