Posted on 12/06/2018 11:25:55 AM PST by BeauBo
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz with three other senators introduced a bill Wednesday that is aimed at fully funding a wall along the US-Mexico border... The WALL Act would fully fund the border wall by closing existing loopholes that provide illegal immigrants with federal benefits and tax credits, without affecting the benefits and tax credits used by Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at kxan.com ...
Regardless of his motives (which no one but God really knows), I say, WE MUST SUPPORT ANY BILL TO FUND THE WALL.
“How the hell did Obama get hundreds of Billions for Iran?”
Those were Iranian accounts that were frozen under sanctions, which he released.
The pallets of cash though, may well have been misappropriated US taxpayer funds.
You said something very telling, a conservative Senator attempts to bring bulls to floor filibusters is trashed by McLame for said Filibusters yet GOPe stop him every time and his bill died. Hmmm sounds like a good thing and it’s happened every time
In medieval times, people claiming medical skills they did not have roamed throughout Italy, selling "medicine" that was often completely without worth.
Many of these pretenders reputedly came from a village called Cerreto, and as a result, cerretano (meaning "inhabitant of Cerreto") became an epithet for a quack physician.
In addition, these frauds used a practiced patter to attract customers, rather like the chatter of a circus barker. The Italian word for "chatter" is ciarlare, and chattering was so associated with the cerretano that the spelling of the word shifted to ciarlatano. By the early 17th century, we had anglicized the Italian word to charlatan and adopted it as our own.
I understand but this is the GOP.
If they wanted to do it, they could have done it 2 years ago.
Even if they did want to do it, it would take 6 months of DC drama to get it rammed thru both houses and then signed.
Cruz did the same thing back years ago promoting a bill he was going to promote.
All he really wanted was a mailing list of new donors.
The bill never saw the light of day and I got played as a sucker and got constant letters from him asking for money.
Correct... Why are politicians not held to account for their oath of office. Apparently, it does not mean anything anymore to these folks when they swear to protect the country. I guess it’s just grandstanding when they take the oath now. Unfortunately, it also erodes the whole idea of the constitution.
Trump is a proven 'doer', and an effective executive.
Congress critters, not so much.
He made a similar proposal in April of 2017.
Yeah? I don't remember it. Care to share?
The El Chapo asset forfeiture bill, about 14 billion.
The El Chapo asset forfeiture bill, about 14 billion.
“The whole thing is absolutely ludicrous,” Hope said. “There’s no way El Chapo has $14 billion. This is political grandstanding.”
Ok, you don’t support a bill like this because according to you, it has no chance of passing, next question, when will you ever support a similar bill?
To what end? The bill is DOA.
Cruz is obviously laying down a marker here. So in 2 or 3 years he can come back and say “See, I supported The Wall.”
It’s clear to me these guys have all told themselves there is no way Trump can win in 2020 and they have started jockeying for the support of Trumpers in a post Trump GOP. They have badly miscalculated but that should be no surprise given they are orthodox GOP career politicians. We have Trump because of them. Thanks, Ted!
Cruz got the figure directly from the DOJ.
You cherry pick from the article to match your point-of-view.
I'll consider all the points of view.
Although just the Cruz name was in the title, four Senators are proposing this bill.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the proposal, is a budgeting rationale to offset the spending, which might help to pass Wall funding, by satisfying some technical requirement of the budget process (I’m guessing). Another aspect of interest, is that these budget “offsets” themselves would be useful economic disincentives to illegal immigration.
From the article:
“Cruz, along with Sen. Jim Infoe (R-Okla.), Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) introduced the WALL Act — the first legislation that would identify funding sources for the border wall.
The WALL Act would fully fund the border wall by closing existing loopholes that provide illegal immigrants with federal benefits and tax credits, without affecting the benefits and tax credits used by Americans.
If passed, the bill would fund President Donald Trump’s proposed $25 billion border wall and provide specific ways to fund it. Sen. Kennedy claims that enacting certain changes with the WALL Act, American taxpayers will save $33 billion. The changes proposed in the bill are as follows:
- A work-authorized Social Security Number (SSN) will be required to claim refundable tax credits like Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit
- Welfare applicants will be required to verify citizenship
- Minimum fines will be increased for people who illegally cross the border and a minimum penalty will be established for those who overstay their visa in the country.”
Why not just propose comprehensive bill: wall, e-verify, deport, end daca, end birthright, etc.? Heck, this is for show anyway.
I don’t understand the rationale for doing this now. There are what, 10 business days left in the lame duck? Is their intention that this bill is attached to other Senate business in the next few days and voted on? Or passed by the Senate in the next Congress? When the Democrats control the House, of course. None of it makes sense to me.
It just looks like a virtue signalling diversion from the real issues right now which are Flake’s stunt stalling judical nominees and the Mueller Coup proceeding unrestrained.
“Why not just propose comprehensive bill: wall, e-verify, deport, end daca, end birthright, etc.?”
I don’t know the technical ins and outs of the process. I’d certainly like to see an all of the above approach. I hope that they (the GOP) have some brilliant secret strategy to pass wall funding (if not complete immigration reform), that this a part of - but I have been disappointed before (many, many times).
I figure our purpose is to stay abreast of events and discuss them, so I just try to post any significant sounding border developments that I see, as grist for our mill...
“I don’t understand the rationale for doing this now.”
Me neither brother. It certainly might just be an empty political gesture (virtue signaling). Like whatever happened to Kevin McCarthy’s highly advertised Build the Wall and Enforce the Law Act, after he won his election as minority leader?
It’s possible that the GOP has a strategy to pass something good - they sure have had a long time to prepare such a strategy. Dingy Harry Reed was able to pull off some chicanery to get Obamacare passed under similar circumstances.
I am more just observing what is going on, and posting any relevant news to keep our team informed, than I am certain of my ability to predict what the future holds.
I hold hope in my heart like a little prayer, but it sure gets kicked around a lot in the course of politics...
Do you remember if that bill designated that the money was to be used for the wall? Thanks.
“Do you remember if that bill (The El Chapo asset forfeiture bill) designated that the money was to be used for the wall?”
Yes it did designate the money for the wall - and it would have been Mexicans paying for it.
Another proposal on the House side would establish a fund of up to $25 billion, that the Administration could fill through many possible non-appropriated ways (such aset forfeiture being one of them).
There are good ideas out there, if there is the political will.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.