February 12, 2019
GOP Cuts Raw Deal for America on Border Wall
Timothy Birdnow
Congressional negotiators have produced about what we all expected in the frenzied effort to keep the government open and fund a border wall. Politico tells us:
As I pointed out, this deal is being negotiated by the worst RINO Republicans in Congress: Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, North Dakota’s Sen. John Hoeven, and Missouri’s Sen. Roy Blunt. Is it any wonder they have come up with a niggardly billion and chump change here?
Congressman Bill Posey chronicles government waste that nobody seems to care about. So does Tom Coburn. Protecting America's border is far, far more important, and a drop in the bucket to many of these ridiculous projects (like collecting urine or studying romance on the internet.)
Oh, by the way, we will be paying furloughed government workers over two billion, more than Trump is going to get for the Wall.
If Trump accepts this he's a fool, and will not be re-elected. This is not a serious proposal, but a face-saving surrender by the GOP.
I think Trump made a huge mistake re-opening the government in the first place. He had the Democrats starting to waffle (other than Pelosi) and they should; the federal workers are a primary constituency of the Democratic Party and when they stopped getting paychecks they started getting mad. They were not willing to be sacrificed on the altar of illegal aliens. But Trump surrendered just as the pain started to hit. As Sun Tzu said, you do not venture a short way into enemy territory. A shallow penetration leads to dispersion. No; if you go you go all in. As Saul Alinsky said "if you push a negative long and hard enough it can break through and become a positive". Based on these two admonisions we should understand that Trump needed to hang tough. He didn't; he threw in his hand just as crunch time came.
So now he needs something to save face. I fear he may take this horrible deal, and the Democrats will crow about suckering him.
If we are serious about protecting America we need a real wall. If nothing else it presents a psychological boundary making it plain to invaders that they are doing something wrong. Now they can just walk into the country without any sense of having violated anything.
Why do people put up cyclone fences? Picket fences? determined people can get over them quite easily. They are put there to make a statement "that side is yours, this side is mine". Even if they don't stop people (and the Great Wall of China certainly stopped Atilla and his Huns) they at least present a psychological barrier. A nation needs that.
If we don't have a border we don't have a country.
Congressional negotiators have produced about what we all expected in the frenzied effort to keep the government open and fund a border wall. Politico tells us:
The tentative deal includes $1.375 billion for physical barriers — a type of fencing that resembles the "steel slats†that Trump has specifically called for, according to a congressional aide briefed on the talks. It includes a total of 55 miles, which is just 9 miles shy of Trump’s last budget request.
In exchange, Democrats agreed to drop their demand to restrict the number of people who can be detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement at a time. Negotiators agreed to fund a total of 40,520 detention beds for ICE, a roughly 17 percent reduction from current levels, the aide said.
But one Republican source was quick to dispute Democrats' account, saying the $1.375 billion in barrier funding can be used for "new miles of border wall." The same Republican source suggested that the deal had enough flexibility to actually reach the president's requested level of 52,000 beds, far above the negotiated level.
Details of the final deal may not be released until Wednesday, which has both parties aggressively attempting to spin the proposal as a win.
In exchange, Democrats agreed to drop their demand to restrict the number of people who can be detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement at a time. Negotiators agreed to fund a total of 40,520 detention beds for ICE, a roughly 17 percent reduction from current levels, the aide said.
But one Republican source was quick to dispute Democrats' account, saying the $1.375 billion in barrier funding can be used for "new miles of border wall." The same Republican source suggested that the deal had enough flexibility to actually reach the president's requested level of 52,000 beds, far above the negotiated level.
Details of the final deal may not be released until Wednesday, which has both parties aggressively attempting to spin the proposal as a win.
As I pointed out, this deal is being negotiated by the worst RINO Republicans in Congress: Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, North Dakota’s Sen. John Hoeven, and Missouri’s Sen. Roy Blunt. Is it any wonder they have come up with a niggardly billion and chump change here?
Congressman Bill Posey chronicles government waste that nobody seems to care about. So does Tom Coburn. Protecting America's border is far, far more important, and a drop in the bucket to many of these ridiculous projects (like collecting urine or studying romance on the internet.)
Oh, by the way, we will be paying furloughed government workers over two billion, more than Trump is going to get for the Wall.
If Trump accepts this he's a fool, and will not be re-elected. This is not a serious proposal, but a face-saving surrender by the GOP.
I think Trump made a huge mistake re-opening the government in the first place. He had the Democrats starting to waffle (other than Pelosi) and they should; the federal workers are a primary constituency of the Democratic Party and when they stopped getting paychecks they started getting mad. They were not willing to be sacrificed on the altar of illegal aliens. But Trump surrendered just as the pain started to hit. As Sun Tzu said, you do not venture a short way into enemy territory. A shallow penetration leads to dispersion. No; if you go you go all in. As Saul Alinsky said "if you push a negative long and hard enough it can break through and become a positive". Based on these two admonisions we should understand that Trump needed to hang tough. He didn't; he threw in his hand just as crunch time came.
So now he needs something to save face. I fear he may take this horrible deal, and the Democrats will crow about suckering him.
If we are serious about protecting America we need a real wall. If nothing else it presents a psychological boundary making it plain to invaders that they are doing something wrong. Now they can just walk into the country without any sense of having violated anything.
Why do people put up cyclone fences? Picket fences? determined people can get over them quite easily. They are put there to make a statement "that side is yours, this side is mine". Even if they don't stop people (and the Great Wall of China certainly stopped Atilla and his Huns) they at least present a psychological barrier. A nation needs that.
If we don't have a border we don't have a country.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
10:35 AM
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