Posted on 02/01/2019 9:26:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President Trump is growing impatient over the lack of progress bipartisan negotiators in Congress have been making in talks over funding a desperately needed wall on the nation’s porous multi-state border with Mexico – and this continuing failure makes another government shutdown increasingly likely this Feb. 15.
The GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted 217 to 185 on Dec. 20 for a spending bill with $5.7 billion for the wall. The measure floundered in the Senate and the partial shutdown got underway Dec. 22. The Senate remains in Republican hands but the House is now controlled by Democrats.
Trump engaged in what his handlers characterized as a strategic temporary retreat when he signed a bill Jan. 25 to reopen the government for a three-week period after the longest federal shutdown on record, dropping his demand that Congress appropriate funding for the wall before restoring the government to full functionality until Feb. 15 after which the government could partially shut down again. Trump said he’ll use the time to continue to push lawmakers for money for the wall and is perfectly willing to shut the government down again if he doesn’t secure appropriations for construction of the project.
Trump told Democrats and obstructionist Republicans he’s not interested in playing political word games over the wall, sometimes calling the wall a border structure, other times calling it a barrier or using a different word, the Daily Mail reports. Trump has quipped that Democrats can call the wall “peaches” if they want, so long as lawmakers appropriate funding.
“The Wall is getting done one way or the other!” Trump tweeted. In another tweet he added, “Construction has started and will not stop until it is finished.”
According to the British newspaper:
The U.S. president continued to rage for more than an hour, telling Republicans on a bipartisan panel tasked with coming to a border security arrangement to stop 'wasting their time' on the negotiations with his political opponents. “I’ve got you covered. Wall is already being built, I don’t expect much help!” he proclaimed.
Trump took to Twitter to continue complaining about the negotiators’ failure to accomplish anything.
“Large sections of WALL have already been built with much more either under construction or ready to go. Renovation of existing WALLS is also a very big part of the plan to finally, after many decades, properly Secure Our Border. The Wall is getting done one way or the other!” he wrote.
Although more than a few Democrat lawmakers have said Congress should fund the wall, the Democrats in charge of talks continue to stubbornly refuse to offer any money for the construction project.
The new Democrat majority in the House isn’t even pretending to negotiate in good faith with Trump. They correctly view the wall as an existential threat to their party and despite their endless whining and mockery of the idea of the wall, they know its construction would slow the flow of illegal aliens into the country and impede the growth of the party’s electoral base.
“If you’re asking if there’s any money for a border wall there is none,” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.).
“Within the limited funding available in the bill, we will be fighting for balanced investments across the [Homeland Security] Department’s mission areas. And we will be pushing for a strong, but smart, border security posture, one that does not rely on costly physical barriers,” she said.
Trump railed against the uncooperative lawmakers.
“Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee are wasting their time,” he said. “Democrats, despite all of the evidence, proof and Caravans coming, are not going to give money to build the DESPERATELY needed WALL. I’ve got you covered. Wall is already being built, I don’t expect much help!”
Republicans on Capitol Hill have generally been supportive of the president in the wall funding fight, without being enthusiastic about the prospect of him acting unilaterally to fund the project.
An exception is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) who went on Twitter Thursday to urge Trump to move ahead. “Mr. President, use your powers as Commander in Chief to build wall/barriers – apparently your only option.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) continues to be politely skeptical at the prospect of the president using emergency powers to obtain wall funding but many of the NeverTrumpers of Conservatism Inc. inside the Beltway have been downright hostile.
One of the more outrageous reactions came from Capital Research Center research director Michael Watson who tweeted that Trump should be impeached for trying to build the wall. “Declaring an emergency to override Congress’s spending authority is an impeachable offense and should be treated as such[,]” he wrote on Twitter.
Watson and a chorus of now-unemployed Weekly Standard staffers are incensed that White House aides have reportedly prepared an executive declaration that gives the president the ability to redirect billions of dollars in military construction and flood-control funds.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has threatened to file a lawsuit immediately if Trump invokes the National Emergencies Act to secure funding to build the wall.
Legal experts say the president can call upon the National Emergencies Act, a statute President Gerald Ford signed into law in 1976, to get construction of the wall underway.
President Trump has already invoked the National Emergencies Act three times in his tenure, according to ABC News. President Barack Obama invoked the statute no fewer than 10 times.
Left-wing constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley confirmed in a recent column Trump has the legal authority to act.
“Congress expressly gave presidents the authority to declare such emergencies and act unilaterally,” Turley wrote.
The National Emergencies Act gives presidents sweeping authority as well as allowance in federal regulations to declare an “immigration emergency” to deal with an “influx of aliens which either is of such magnitude or exhibits such other characteristics that effective administration of the immigration laws of the United States is beyond the existing capabilities” of immigration authorities “in the affected area or areas.” The basis for such an invocation generally includes the “likelihood of continued growth in the magnitude of the influx,” rising criminal activity, as well as high “demands on law enforcement agencies” and “other circumstances.”
It is becoming increasingly clear that in the current polarized environment using the National Emergencies Act may be the only way the wall gets built.
Bipartisan indicates compromise. But remember, compromising with bad policy is like adding sewage to your drinking water.
Which is why we need TERM LIMITS and ALL POLITICAL DONATIONS TO BE ANONYMOUS. Can't sell influence if you don't know who's buying.
“Leave the government shut down, no deal on DACA AND build the wall. Win win win win.”
Keep the government open, build the “border fence in its entirety”, no deal on DACA or any other immigration stances the rats are taking and blame the Democrats for shutting down the government.
Neither of these will ever happen...both have been attempted and the corrupt system beat them back. Any system can be corrupted by a corrupt people. I believe we are beyond solutions that don’t destroy the existing corrupted system entirely.
“...ALL POLITICAL DONATIONS TO BE ANONYMOUS. ....”
I agree but how do you control/police that?
Maybe individuals give to the party it all goes into one account. It’s now mixed up with others therefore anonymous. Then the party doles it out?
I can see positives & negatives regarding that?
I do not want the government handing it out!
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable that I’m growing impatient with Trump. I know I’ll get attacked for saying it, but given the last 2 years, I don’t think there’s a great game of 3D chess going on. Trump has no options. Or at least none he’s willing to use.”
It’s bad. We have a full scale invasion going on and NOTHING is being done.
Our govt is FUBARed
A neutral party forwards the donations to those for whom they are intended. Americans should be allowed to donate as much as they wish to whatever candidate, officeholder or party they choose; that’s FREEDOM. But purchasing an outcome makes it bribery, a crime. Any attempt to communicate to the recipient the source of the funds or any attempt by the recipient to learn the source should be a felony.
Maybe the remnants of the IRS after the FairTax is instituted could be repurposed for that. Or of some other disbanded department, like the useless departments of energy, education, environmental protection...
Will people try to cheat? Sure. But a few of the violators publicly frogmarched into the courtroom will curb that.
Demwits -- consider your bluff called.
If enough of the public demand those reforms they will happen. The problem is getting people off their @$$e$ and into the streets.
Are we hopeful there are enough sane people left in this corrupt, sordid, deranged society to pull that off? It will take force.
So you want the FedGov to do it.
I remind you Lois Lerner came from the IRS. IRS part of the Treasure is chock full of radicalized TEU (Treasure Employee Union) members. Even after its been neutered, particularly neutered by something very unlikely to happen. (If I remember correctly FairTax is the consumption tax proposal. Something I support in theory! A lot of details need to be worked out!)
When it comes to politics there are no neutral parties not now, never has been! My point is acknowledge that, keep it simple. Make policeable by those who have an interest in the outcome. Place political party threshold maybe at 5% participation in last election (Maybe not even have a participation threshold) if people want to cheat they will cheat!
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable that I’m growing impatient with Trump.”
The Wall’s groundworks are already in progress. Trump wants to show how quickly he can get the wall built even after obstructions by the Dims. Remember how quickly he built Rockefeller Center—and under budget!
Wa?
People can't even stand up to the people that want to put grown men in a bathroom with their 10 year old daughter.
P4L
Not necessarily, that was just an idea to put SOME of the currently useless to work. I don't like the idea of creating a new agency when so many need to be eliminated. Maybe we should contract it out to private businesses.
...if people want to cheat they will cheat!
So, shall we give up on the wall, because there will be attempts to tunnel under it? Why lock your doors, as a determined criminal will just break the lock?
I think that was the skating rink at RC, not the whole center.
(that's what there going to say at this point. If it were a real emergency it would've been irresponsible to wait this long)
Both parties don’t want the wall.
But I think that the conventional reasons given are not the primary reasons. Sure, the Dems want more voters and the establishment GOP wants the cheap labor as a sop to big business interests. While true, that’s the fig leaf here.
The real reason is that Dims and Rinos have profited from drug and human trafficking for years. A wall would cut into those profits for the money laundering banks that pay off the pols and higher ups at DEA, FBI, CIA. Can’t stop that dark money. The Bushies, Clinton and 0bama were all a part of the action too. That’s why it was always easy for Dems like Schemer to talk tough knowing that no wall would be built.
Trump doesn’t need the payoff. But no doubt, he and his family been threatened by the banking and drug/ human trafficking interests.
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