It’s Dead! No money for the border wall and the government is shut down. Trump promised Americans if he was elected, he’d build the wall. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. And to make matters worse, funding for the federal Government — at least part of it — ended at midnight Friday night.
Trump has been a “promise machine.” He’s made numerous commitments to Americans before and since the 2016 election. The Left shudder everytime one of those promises leaves his lips. Why? Because most of his promises have been fulfilled — something Leftist politicians and media are not familiar with. They honestly do not quite know how to process it.
But they have ammunition, thanks to the Democrats in the Senate who refused once again to do the job of debate, negotiations, and finding common ground through compromise to get the job done.
Very little media will put the responsibility for this shutdown on Democrats. Trump will bear the blame. But with only 50 Senate votes and that rule that requires 60 votes in the Senate for passage, passing any legislation from the conservative side is virtually impossible. Chuck Schumer and his Senate minions know that. They refuse to negotiate and show zero willingness for compromise. Never mind that 80% of Americans want border security — whatever types of security it takes for that. Schumer and Pelosi live to do one thing and one thing only: thwart anything in the Trump agenda, regardless if it is good for the country.
I’ve said it here often, “The difference between Conservatives and Democrats is this: Conservatives hate liberal policies of Democrats. Democrats hate Conservatives.” We saw that play out in this legislative war the last two weeks.
Here’s the “Trump stuff” that frosts Democrat leadership in Congress:
First, it was Obamacare: “If elected President, we will repeal and replace Obamacare.” (Candidate Donald Trump)
Then it was government spending: “If elected President, we will cut wasteful spending that under Obama has doubled the federal debt in 8 years.” (Candidate Donald Trump)
Then it was taxes: “If elected President, we will pass a massive income tax cut for the middle class in America.” (Candidate Donald Trump)
Then, a border wall: “If elected President, we will build a really BIG wall at our southern border and Mexico will pay for it.” (Candidate Donald Trump)
Is One out of Four Good Enough? Can Trump survive without providing that southern wall?
- We all know the history of the Trump Congress pushing to get Obamacare to the floor of the Senate for debate before a Senate vote to repeal Obama’s premier legislative achievement. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) famously cast the deciding vote to kill the motion to even debate the pros and cons of Obamacare. On that one, President Trump has the luxury of being able to blame Establishment Republicans like McCain who voted with Democrats. That was “Strike One” against the President regarding his campaign promises. But it also was “Strike One” against Republican members of Congress who actually campaigned for re-election promising voters the repeal/replacement of the healthcare finance plan called Obamacare.
- The U.S. government is a spending monster. Everyone knows that. The government waste is in the tens of billions of dollars each fiscal year. All of that money comes directly from U.S. taxpayers. And taxpayers are growing tired of carrying the water for Congressional runaway spending with runaway successful income tax revenues. Trump promised to cut government waste, therefore, cutting needless spending. The 2017 Omnibus Bill being signed into law by the President was “Strike Two.” It was the biggest budget spending bill in U.S. history that Trump said over and over again during his 2016 campaign and the early months of his presidency he would NOT sign into law WITHOUT the inclusion of funding for the border wall. In announcing his acceptance of the bloated spending bill that was passed in both Houses without border security funding, his reason for signing was because, in exchange for massive social spending increases demanded by Democrats, the Omnibus included an agreement for large military budget increases which had been stripped from Obama budgets during his 8 years in office. And Trump had promised to rebuild the American military for which he had to have previous military budget amounts restored.
- No doubt the American taxpayer — especially the Middle Class — have been carrying a large, disproportionate share of income tax responsibility. Trump promised tax relief to those Americans. He was able to give that relief with significant tax cuts for almost every level of taxpayer. With the passing of these tax cuts, a surprising response was received from the private business community in the U.S. Hundreds of companies passed out significant cash bonuses to their workers. Additionally, many pay increases were given. And as the President promised, with those tax cuts that included cuts for corporations, billions of corporate dollars being held offshore flooded the U.S. as these corporations saw a switch in the view held by this Administration from that of Obama. Companies not only felt like changes were coming that would help them, they saw the President make such changes that immediately impacted corporate bottom lines. Individual and corporate tax cuts together gave the U.S. economy a shot in the arm not seen since Ronald Reagan.
- Building a border wall with numerous other border security systems was key in Trump’s 2016 campaign. But since his inauguration, he has struggled to get funding from Congress — even with Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate. The anticipated cost? $15 billion, initially. But with constant push-back from Democrats and even moderate Republicans, it became apparent that $15 billion was a non-starter. The President began negotiations to include a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, the cleanup of the dysfunctional legal immigration system, and other goodies in exchange for $5 billion to begin his border security projects, which include the wall. Congress stone-walled the President again. Experts will agree that the border wall was certainly the biggest reason Americans voted for him in 2016. Most Americans (as reported in numerous polls) want the government to enforce existing immigration laws, stop illegal migration, and to build a wall to slow or stop the flow of illegals across the southern border. So far, President Trump has failed to get the wall funded.
Will Trump’s Wall Failure Doom his Presidency?
That’s the big one.
Kellyanne Conway — senior advisor to the President — Wednesday morning appeared on “Fox and Friends” to respond to the suggestions that President Trump has caved on his demands for border control security funding to include the wall and was leaning towards walking away from his famous promise on live television from the Oval Office a week. The President warned Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer that he would NOT sign any bill to fund the government past December 22nd unless it included border security funding.
The big question from Americans until Thursday was: Will the President Cave?
That was the million dollar question. Leadership from both parties in the House and the Senate thought he would and presented a Continuing Resolution to the Senate which was unanimously approved. Before the House took it up, Trump notified Leadership he would NOT sign that bill into law WITHOUT $5 billion for the border wall! Everyone was shocked — especially the Media and Congressional leadership.
But consider this:
We have seen the President negotiate in many ways for many agenda items since taking office. But one thing is certain: he’s a negotiator. I found it difficult to believe that he would so abruptly make a 180 degree turn away from the thing that he has been so adamant about since he was pressured into signing that Omnibus bill in 2017: funding for the border wall. Who can forget that contentious televised Oval Office meeting with Schumer and Pelosi and how demonstrative Trump was in making it clear: no border wall funding, no spending bill signed. What caused the change of heart?
Honestly, I was certain he HAD NOT had a change of heart! I asked those questions:
- Why would he after that very public meeting where he made very public demands suddenly walk away from those demands?
- Why would he turn against American voters who many of which voted for him for President primarily because he was so adamant about border security and building the southern wall?
- Why would he in the follow-up of his non-stop tweets with his demands for funding for the wall to prevent a government shutdown walk away and cave?
Answer: He must have not changed his mind!
Unfortunately, the Senate failed to take action on Friday evening to pass that measure passed from the House that included border wall funding. The government shutdown began Friday night at midnight.
We won’t go into the false premise that has been shouted from the Leftist media rooftops that “The Sky is Falling,” because it’s nothing but empty rhetoric. But you can rest assured President Trump has something in mind to “get er’ done!”
So what could be going on?
The U.S. Pledges $10.6 Billion For Central America and Southern Mexico…
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid and investment Tuesday for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and another $4.8 billion in development aid for southern Mexico. The U.S aid aims to promote better security conditions and job opportunities as part of a regional plan to allow Central Americans and Mexicans to remain in their countries and not have to emigrate. The plan was announced in a joint U.S.-Mexican statement released by the State Department and read aloud by Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in the Mexican capital. “In sum I think this is good news, very good news for Mexico,” Ebrard said.
Newly inaugurated President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waxed poetic about the plan to provide jobs so people won’t have to emigrate. “I have a dream that I want to see become a reality … that nobody will want to go work in the United States anymore,” Lopez Obrador said at a morning news conference before the announcement. The combination of public and private investment for the stay-at-home effort doesn’t require congressional approval, unlike Trump’s signature project to stem illegal immigration — a border wall.
Summary
What I see here is President Trump deploying a root-cause workaround for the current border argument, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo carrying it out.
I strongly suspect there was an agreement of this sort long before the USMCA was finalized and made public. As part of an agreement with President Lopez-Obrador, these funds will be used to secure Mexico’s border effectively cutting-off the Central American migration flow before it can reach the Southern U.S. This approach is entirely in line with nationalist AMLO’s objectives for a larger and more stable economy within Mexico specifically by partnering with nationalist U.S. President Trump toward that common goal.
If Trump can’t get Congress to agree to defend the U.S. border, he can sure leverage and entice Lopez-Obrador to do it a few miles south. This approach is President Trump working on optimal solutions while encountering domestic political roadblocks. This is exactly what President Trump does…. find solutions.
President Trump can sit around righteously fighting with the swamp over the security issues — the “historical and politically correct thing to do” — or he can fight the swamp while simultaneously deploying a solution that mitigates the issue at its root cause, thinking outside the box.
What else would a businessman president do?
