Trump Wants $18 Billion for Wall Funding, Dems Threaten Govt Shutdown over DACA
“includes 316 miles of new construction and 407 miles of replacement or secondary fencing”
Another government spending bill with a due date of January 19th is rapidly approaching. Democrats want a deal on DACA and Trump wants funding for the wall. Neither side shows any signs of backing down.
Samuel Chamberlain reports at FOX News:
White House seeks $18B to extend border wall over next 10 years
The Trump administration has asked Congress to set aside $18 billion over the next decade to install or replace more than 700 miles of the barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The proposal by U.S. Customs and Border Protection would extend the barrier’s coverage to 970 miles, nearly half the distance of the southern border. It includes 316 miles of new construction and 407 miles of replacement or secondary fencing, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter told the Associated Press.
The request is one of the most detailed insights into how the administration plans to carry out Trump’s signature campaign promise…
The plan also comes as the administration intensifies negotiations in Congress on a package that may include granting legal status to about 800,000 people who were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
Trump said last year that he was ending DACA but gave Congress until early March to deliver a legislative fix.
It’s important to point out that the $18 billion Trump wants is just for border wall expansion and repair over 10 years. He’s seeking billions more for the wall’s construction.
Here’s a video report:
Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times says Trump is playing for keeps here:
Trump plays hardball: Border wall, more security must be in Dreamers deal
The White House is asking for full funding for the border wall, new authority to prevent another surge of illegal immigrant children and restrictions on so-called sanctuary cities all be included in any bill to grant legal status to illegal immigrant Dreamers.
President Trump’s proposal, sent Friday to Capitol Hill, instantly roiled the debate, with Sen. Richard Durbin — Democrats’ chief negotiator in the discussions — saying his party was prepared to risk a government shutdown to avoid giving in to the president’s demands.
The Homeland Security Department has specifically asked for authorization to build about $18 billion worth of new fencing on the border, sending long-awaited details of the plan to Capitol Hill.
And the department reiterated that Mr. Trump’s October list of priorities must be part of the discussion. That list included the crackdown on sanctuary cities, new authority to reject bogus asylum applications and to quickly kick out new illegal immigrants, and a change in the current patterns of family-based chain migration.
Dems are threatening a government shut down if Trump doesn’t back down, via Politico:
A top Senate Democrat trying to hammer out a deal to protect hundreds of thousands of Dreamers trashed a White House border security plan on Friday, while warning that Washington is headed toward a government shutdown over the issue.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democrat, called the Trump administration’s proposed new security measures an effort to undermine bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill — talks that have plodded along so far with no resolution in sight.
Robert Costa of WaPo reports that Dems think a shutdown is a winning issue for them:
Meanwhile, an upbeat Democratic Party, following this week's arrival of Sen. Doug Jones, knows that it's own base wants a standoff, too. And the view of many D sources is: most R leaders + some in WH want to avoid a shutdown over charged issue of dreamers. https://t.co/cHh2QjQ8rR
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 6, 2018
There is a widespread belief among D sources that congressional Rs are eager to head into midterms running on tax bill, not as party that engaged in showdown over dreamers. That's where Ds see leverage. And they are ready to ask, "Wasn't Mexico supposed to pay, not taxpayers?"
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 6, 2018
For Trump, the border wall is a non-negotiable item. It was a major campaign promise and certainly part of the reason he won the election.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Shut it down.
Shut it down and start the deportations March 1.
With no pay to the gov workers not working*.
*most of them aren’t working anyway, at least we’ll save a few bucks.
Bbbbbbbut it’s unfair and not nice to break up families!!!
(So deport the whole family)
YES!
Their entire extended families are all still back in their homeland. So send them back to their fatherland (as GWB Jr. would say).
The Dems are in a bind, although these reports are artfully worded to make it look otherwise.
If they blow off Trump’s conditions for a deal, then there will be no agreement which gives DREAMers legal status, and all remain subject to deportation when Obama’s illegal program dies in a few months. It’s death for the Dems to become the party which blocked legal status.
And a shutdown will do them no good, because, not controlling the Executive, they don’t get to dictate the details. Obama deliberately made the last “shutdown” as annoying to the general public as he could. The Dems can’t rely on anything like that this time around. Huge chunks of the government could be shut down without anybody noticing, and I’m sure they know it.
There’s also no mention in this account of the thing the Dems want most of all—that pestilential “path to citizenship”, which is their Holy Grail—more reliably Democratic voters. Nothing less than that is really of any use to them.
I got this right, wall or government shutdown? Sounds like a win/win. Can we have both?
The Dems are living in the delusion they win ANY government shutdown for ANY reason like the average American is so committed to illegal aliens and against the wall that they are willing to endure a government shutdown to make sure the Democrats get everything they want. If we lived in that country Trump would not have won and Republicans would not own the Senate and House.
You speak about ‘blame’ as if it’s a bad thing for our government to be shut down.
Our nation is $20.6 trillion is debt. I’m not sure why the government even bothers with taxation at this point, there is no apparent relationship between revenues and spending.
We have $111.5 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
Our government needed shutting down 20 years ago.
It would help us see what jobs are needed and which are not 🙂
The only essential functions of the government are the military and law enforcement! Shut everything else down. When it is over, do not pay those who did not work for the “lost time”. No catch up on for welfare payments either.
Our government needed shutting down 20 years ago.
My vote is 1957—60 years ago; the last year the federal government didn’t pig out on deficit spending.
With refugee crises forced by social justice adventures (e.g. elective regime changes), mass exodus from second and third-world nations, and labor arbitrage, presumably to compensate for Planned Parenthood and social progress, the wall wouldn’t be necessary with emigration and religious/moral reform.
The Democrats have backed themselves in to a corner here. They can’t negotiate with Trump given they have gone all in on this resistance thing (which really seems to be nothing more than a resistance to common sense).
Their only hope is that enough Democrat Republicans side with them on DACA. And let’s be honest here, there are more than enough Democrat Republicans only too happy to sell their country out in the name of bipartisanship-ness.
Their only hope is that enough Democrat Republicans side with them on DACA
Which is why they’re grousing. The D’rats are confident that they can bamboozle and buffalo the GOPe—
Dick Durbin … called the Trump administration’s proposed new security measures an effort to undermine bipartisan negotiations on Capitol Hill — talks that have plodded along so far with no resolution in sight.
—but realize that the President is not so easy to manipulate.
I suppose this is what’s meant by Trump being “unfit for office”—the stupid goon doesn’t know his place, which should be somewhere under the heel of the Progressive boot.
History lesson: If the Republicans shut down the government, the Republicans are the bad guys. If the D’Rats shut down the government, the Republicans are the bad guys.
That’s a canard. The R’s have not paid any price when the gov shut down, except in the dems media.
Yes, the Democrats want their base to believe that should it come to be, that they are the ones who are deliberately responsible for shutting down the US Government, they did it to save their base from Trump and the evil GOP.
Go right ahead because if the the Government shutdowns , no tax refund checks will be processed.
Neither party can survive a modest shut down of the government lasting into February, politically. Both parties have too much invested in voters dependent upon government largess. Just as in the last shutdown, the Dems will claim that the Repubs are “starving” people for unrealistic political gains. The MSM will scream this from the heavens. And, the Dems expect the GOP to cave, again. But, caving won’t save the GOP, because Trump will likely veto any bill which does not contain money for the border wall and which legalizes DACA registrants. And the Republican Congress Critters can not afford to override such a veto in an election year. And, finally, there is simply not enough time for the Congress to draft a budget bill which will give everyone cover, if it passes. So, watch for another continuing resolution to take the pressure off Congress.
While you conclusion (continuing resolution) makes lots of sense I have to wonder just what the president might do with the control over a partial shutdown. During the last shutdown Obama and the bureaucracy did their very best to make the shutdown as painful as possible to everyday Americans. What if a shutdown happened and only the bureaucracy and leftists suffered? Use the same strategy applied by Clinton and Obama in a shutdown but in the opposite direction.
Just wondering
I’m trying to think of something dumber and more reckless then playing Government Shutdown Chicken with Donald Trump
This is not George Bush or Mitt Romney you’re playing games with. You were warned.
Precisely.
Compelling theater.
Yes, shut it down. Since only critical government employees remain on the job it’s an excellent opportunity to select government employees eligible for downsizing. If they are not critical, they are not needed.
The only problem with a Government Shut-Down is:
They never work.
They always come back.
And we have to pay them for days off.
Something is wrong here…
Dear local elected officials,
Whatever happens to my family will happen to yours.
If an illegal alien gets drunk and runs over my kid, your kid will also be run over.
If an illegal alien rapes and murders my wife, your wife will be raped and murdered.
$18 billion for a wall is too much. All that is need is 2
6 foot chain-link fences 6 feet apart with barb wire between them. Add a little electronic security, and that is a sufficient border wall for $150,000 per mile. So a 1,000 miles is only $150 million or a hundred times cheaper than what the government is bidding.