Democrats seek to separate shutdown from border wall standoff, plan to introduce spending bills to reopen government
Likely-incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces that House Democrats would look to reopen the government, but only if they didn't have to pay for the wall; Kevin Corke reports from the White House.
The Oscar for the biggest bluff of 2018 goes to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi for almost having us convinced they’re opposed to immigration reform from high atop the fabricated moral high ground they’ve staked out.
In reality, they weren’t always opposed to illegal immigrants being forced to follow the law and come here through legal channels.
How do we know this? They told us.
In 2009, while speaking at Georgetown University, Sen. Schumer, D-NY, said “illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple.” Indirectly referencing over 600 miles of border fence that had already been built, he literally claimed it was a “significant barrier to illegal immigration.” This is exactly President Trump’s position about completing the border wall, almost word for word.
Schumer is also on record, and on video, as having said, "One of the most effective things we do on the border is turn people back … they get up to the border and we find them and say, 'go home!’" Again, this is President Trump’s position, almost word for word.
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House Minority Leader and incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also had a different position on borders. In 2008 she said, “Because we do need to address the issue of immigration and the challenge we have of undocumented people in our country. We certainly do not want any more coming in.”
Even Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for president took a hard line on illegal immigration as late as 2014 saying, “We have to send a clear message that just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean your child gets to stay. We don’t want to send a message that is contrary to our laws or encourage more children to make that dangerous journey.”
Nancy and Hillary sound a lot like President Trump, again almost verbatim.
In 2013 every single Democrat in the Senate — all 54 of them — voted for $46 billion in border security, which included 700 miles in border fencing. Yet today, the Democrats are willing to shut down the government over just $5 billion dollars.
To most people $5 billion is an inconceivable amount of money. To Congress it’s lunch money.
To put it in perspective, in 2009 when Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House, they passed a $787 billion stimulus bill, a $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations bill. Then in 2015 they overwhelmingly voted for President Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal, which gave that nation — the world’s most foremost sponsor of terrorism —$150 billion in the hope that would keep the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon.
President Trump rightly extracted the U.S. from that deal, which Iran had no intention of honoring, but the money is gone and we can’t get it back.
To show just how principled they are in their spending, they’ve also thrown money at swine odor and manure management research to the tune of $1.8 million.
When you look at it in these terms, why would Democrats shut down the government over a measly $5 billion, halt government employee paychecks and, in the case of Pelosi, jet off to Hawaii to figure it all out later when they’ve voted for almost 10 times that amount in border security?
Because a border wall isn’t just a win for America, it’s a win for President Trump. If America gets the wall, the president will have made good on his biggest campaign promise, and it will likely mean he’s headed toward a second term in 2020.
And Democrats can’t let President Trump win. This is what flexible morals look like.
They are so consumed with contempt for the president they’re willing to gamble on our country’s security — gangs, drug cartels and possibly even terrorists crossing the border. In their mind, it’s better than the likely alternative — another four years of Trump in the White House.
It’s Trump Derangement Syndrome at its worst.
While Pelosi packed up and went on a Hawaiian vacation amidst the government shutdown, President Trump canceled his Christmas plans at Mar-a-Lago. Except for his trip to Iraq to visit U.S. troops he stayed at the White House ready work with Democrats and reopen the government.
Of course that wasn’t the headline the media reported. Many mainstream outlets ignored Pelosi’s Christmas vacation at a Hawaiian resort, where rooms go from $489 to $3,499 a night, ignored the fact that the president was sticking around and willing to work, ignored that he went to Iraq to support our soldiers, and ignored that for the first time in a very long time a first lady went to a war zone with the president.
Instead, they went full blown Scrooge on the military for daring to bring MAGA hats for the president to sign during his visit to Iraq, accused the president of turning the visit into a campaign rally, and made fun of the first lady’s shoes.
Has anyone else noticed that the media has a borderline creepy obsession with the first lady’s feet? The president could broker a peace agreement in the Middle East and the headline would mock what Melania wore on her feet.
The $5 billion President Trump is asking for is less than one percent of the federal budget. Considering the billions of dollars the Democrats have been more than willing to spend, they look ridiculous digging their heels in over $5 billion — to secure our border nonetheless.
Walls work. Just ask our ally Israel which has a wall along its border; a wall the Israelis have found to be over 99 percent effective.
Democrats aren’t used to Republicans not caving to them. For the first time in a long time we have a president who’s working hard to deliver everything he promised.
For President Trump this is a national security fight, but for the Democrats this is just another case of anti-Trump resistance. If he didn’t want any funding for border security, Democrats would probably insist on it. It’s all a game to them.
The president needs to stay the course. It’s the right thing for the country, and it’s why he was elected.
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