Trump on partial gov’t shutdown: “It’s not going to be open until we have a wall”
The wall fight is not about the wall. We all know that.
The “government” is not shut.
A part of the government, about one-fourth, is not funded. Because of the payroll cycle, the people working in those sectors are getting paid, though there may be a delay in payment for non-essential workers for future work until a new funding bill is passed.
Nonetheless, the “government shutdown” is the phrase of the season.
Depending who you ask, Trump either has boxed himself into a corner handing a potential victory to Schumer and Pelosi, or has brilliantly played his hand so that the only thing standing between a shutdown and a reopening is $5 billion in funding for border security, including some portion for the wall/fence.
If the parties were reversed, the media would have proclaimed the Democrat president the winner in this scenario, blaming Republicans for shutting the government over an amount that, in the grand scheme of the federal government, is almost a rounding error. But since it’s Trump, the media is siding with the Democrats.
The wall fight is not about the wall. We all know that. Democrats simultaneously claim a wall will be totally ineffective AND that it’s going to severely punish migrants and illegal border crossers. But as many people have pointed out, Democrats oppose the wall because (1) it WILL WORK in the locations where it is built, and (2) Congressional Democrats want to deprive Trump of fulfilling a campaign promise.
Trump has compromised, reportedly moving away from the $5 billion number. But does not appear to be backing down entirely.
President Donald Trump says parts of the government will stay shut as long as Democrats refuse to build more barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, seemingly dashing hope for a Christmas miracle that would soon allow several departments to reopen and employees to return to work.
Asked when the government would reopen, Trump said: “I can’t tell you when the government’s going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall or fence, whatever they’d like to call it.”
“I’ll call it whatever they want but it’s all the same thing,” he said at the White House after offering holiday greetings to U.S. troops stationed around the country and the world.
Trump argued that drug flows and human trafficking into the U.S. can only be stopped by a wall.
“We can’t do it without a barrier. We can’t do it without a wall,” he told reporters.
Democrats oppose spending any money on a wall or fence, pushing instead for increased use of technology to control access at the border.
Trump used the press statement today to get his message across how Democrats are playing games:
I don’t see much choice for Trump but to see this through. Even if he get less than the $5 billion, he will portray it as a victory. And he will cite statistics, as he did in the videos above, about how much of the border fence/wall has been repaired or extended.
There’s the added bonus that these partial shutdowns reveal, once again, how much of the federal government is non-essential.
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Comments
<The Democrats will never cave —-=- unless their Donors don’t get their earmarks.
The GOP is every bit at pork-addicted as the Dems. That’s the fundamental problem. The voters who are disillusioned and put Trump in office are not indignant about the spending. They may not even be that concerned. What they are is pi$$ed that the spending increases astronomically while the entire middle class shrinks. The rich get richer in a spectacular way and what qualifies for lower income grows.
It’s odd that when there’s a R president and a D congress government shutdowns are the president’s fault, but when it’s the other way around they’re the congress’s fault. It seems to me that shutdowns are always the president’s doing, because they always come down to the same thing: congress passed an appropriation that the president refuses to sign. Whether he’s right or wrong to refuse depends on the circumstances and your point of view, but the fact remains that congress is not required to pass what the president demands, so the decision to shut down the government is always his. (Though this one is different because congress actually hasn’t passed anything, since the House finally found some late courage and is backing the president’s demand.)
The Senate has a bill. They are refusing to vote on cloture. Your assessment says its Schummers fault. Schummer opposes exactly what he has advocate for and voted for. 15 Dem senators have advocated and voted for barriers at the border.
President Trump is correct. The Dems have no objection to the barrier. The Dems only care about power. Dems do not care about America.
You have it half right. Yes, Schumer etal are opposing what they have advocated and voted for. But that is exactly what the GOP is doing too. It’s the usual kabuki theater where they kick the can down the road because “it’s never EVER the right time to do the right thing”. Even after finally winning control of both houses of Congress and the WH, the GOP has run out of excuses. The time has come and they are cornered.
Government shutdowns occur because BOTH sides refuse to budge. You are just arguing that the Dems are being hypocrites when the GOP is just as bad. Gridlock is the result of ALL sides refusing to budge.
Trump is showing leadership by forcing the issue. Both of the hypocrites are being forced to honor their biggest promise from the 2016 elections. The money is irrelevant. Trump is the guy who is finally standing with the voters against the corrupt globalist machine.
Well played Donald!
Wrong. While government shutdowns are often the result of the President vetoing an appropriations bill, in this case, the government was shutdown because the Congress refused to pass an appropriations bill and present it to the President.
Our system of government is a series of checks and balances. The Congress passes appropriations and other types of bills. The President signs them into law, vetoes them or allows them to go into effect without his signature. The judiciary then rules on the legality and constitutionality of the law, once it is enacted. Any of the three branches of government can, theoretically, cause a shutdown of the government. In this case, it is being caused by the Congress, not the President or the judiciary.
What part of “(Though this one is different because congress actually hasn’t passed anything, since the House finally found some late courage and is backing the president’s demand)” did you not understand?
You are the one who stated categorically that a government shut down is ALWAYS the President’s fault, not me. Then you poet this disclaimer that, in this case, it is not the President’s fault because Congress caused the shut down. You can’t have it both ways. Which is it going to be?.
I said the the President is usually the one responsible for a government shut, as they usually occur when the President vetoes an appropriations bill. Notice that I did not say that the President was always responsible.
Given that Congress is responsible for passing a Budget and all spending bills…… He cannot sign what is not presented to him. He can say what he can posture and bluster and and demand until he’s blue in the face. Until he is actually presented with a bill vetoes it, the fault for a Government Shutdown belongs to Congress (and whatever Flavor of Dems or Repubs reside there collectively)- and it’s STILL their fault if they don’t override his veto. However right, wrong, or indifferent you are about the actual Content of the Bill, the Buck may Stop with the President, but it doesn’t start there.
My mail was still delivered, passenger aircraft are still flying and NORAD still tracked Santa. The government is not shut down. Stop the welfare and SS checks and see how long it all lasts.
Stop the . . . SS checks
And watch our banking system collapse as tens of millions of Americans stop paying off their loans. One would cause less financial damage by stopping payments on the US debt.
Barry would have done it if he thought he could pin the blame on Republicans. But Trump’s not a stupid shit like Barry.
A week or two ago, the news was that over 60% of illegals were receiving some kind of welfare. If they ended that, there’d be far less need for a wall, and they’d take a little chunk off of deficit, too.
SS isn’t Welfare.
Welfare is government free stuff.
Americans worked for SS—and worked a goddamn long time—and paid for it up front.
Social Security absolutely is welfare. The fact that it’s partially funded by a tax on income is irrelevant; you have to pay the tax because Congress said so, but paying it does not create any contract between you and the USA, and it doesn’t have to pay you anything. Your money was not invested for you, it was spent and is now gone, just like all the other taxes you’ve paid over the years. Congress has provided for payments to be made to retirees, just as it has provided for all other kinds of welfare payments; it can change its mind at any time and you would have no legal recourse. And you have known this since before you ever paid a penny in FICA tax, so you can’t complain. You were never promised anything, you were never told your taxes would be invested for you; if you ever thought it worked like a private pension fund that was just your own imagination.
Nice try.
Welfare (upper case) is not the same thing as welfare (lower case).
Welfare (upper case) is indeed a form of welfare (lower case).
But SS is not Welfare.
Whether or not it’s welfare is irrelevant to the thread.
So nice of you to deny money paid into the SS system to be paid back to those put the money in.
How about this: we cut off government and military pensions? Then you can experience what you want SS people to.
Pensions are a contractual commitment of the United States that can’t be cut. Congress has non right to cut them, and if it tries the recipients will sue and win. If necessary the USA’s assets will be seized to pay them.
Social Security is not a contractual commitment. The US has absolutely no obligation to pay a penny of it. It exists at the whim of Congress, which can alter or repeal it whenever it likes.
That is the difference.
This is just further proof that neither party in Congress is going to do anything of substance that would interfere with immigration (legal, or illegal), because they don’t want to.
If they were to change the laws to where there was no sort of publicly financed service, benefit, etc. available to non-citizens; employers were punished for hiring illegals; anyone identified as being in the country illegally was immediately deported (being in the country illegally would disqualify them from attaining any status that could allow them to stay — eliminating any reason for hearings and legal contest); anchor babies were eliminated, etc. — there would be no need of a wall. If there was nothing to be gained from coming into the country illegally, they’d stop coming. This problem exists only because Congress wants it to continue. If they had wanted to stop it, they could have shut off the magnet that attracts illegal immigration forty, or fifty years ago.
No, stop paying the senators’ and congressmen’s salaries and close the Congress parking lots.
People like the autor of tis articel better stop taking things like Trump backing down from $5 billion seriously.
You pundits thought he was going to cave and were stunned (which was by design) when Trump said he wasn’t going to sign the bill.
When will you learn that Trump softens opponents up by making them think it is all over and then changing his demands back to a higher positon?
Not in the near future as you think you are already getting him to come down BEFORE even starting any hardball. You oubdits should be suspicious of that but if course you are not.
Trump has never suggested that he will not build at least part of the wall. He could have held up the Congress months ago by simply refusing to sign and CR or appropriations bull which did not contain at least $25 billion for wall construction. He did not do this. In stead he proposed a reduction of that figure to a modest $5 billion for initial construction. Then he sweetened the deal by offering to provide what amounts to amnesty for almost 2 million aliens illegally residing in this country. And, still the Congress has rejected his every attempt at negotiating a deal. So, now the country gets to see how a professional negotiator plays hardball.
As I have mentioned before, this has nothing to do with Democrat-Republican or liberal-conservative partisan politics. It is all about breaking the power of the middle class.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
I’ve spent the past 10 days not reading the news.
Kinda nice.
Anyway, screw the (D) party.
I thought this was some kind of crisis. I was ready to run into the streets, screaming, but I’m not exactly sure when I should do so.
Didn’t say they were the same things. They’re obviously different. Although, I pay taxes to both and at my age I’m never going to get either one. May as well be the same thing to people less than 40.
Yeah, I remember when I was told I would never collect a penny either. My crystal ball doesn’t tell me you will collect but chances are you will.
A way to pay is always found because all those who are old enough to collect are reliable voters. No one wants to anger them.
It’s been a week since we shut down 25% of the gov’t; the sun still rises, dogs still bark and life goes on just fine. It’s time to shut down the next 25%.