Customs and Border Protection has now confirmed our earlier reporting: 90 miles of new border wall have now been completed. And there are a whopping 148 miles under construction right now.
If construction continues at the current pace, the Trump administration will complete the 450 miles of new border wall on schedule by next November.
And the Trump administration isn't stopping there. The Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of acquiring hundreds of additional miles of border property. Once this 450 mile project is complete, the President plans has authorized construction crews to continue building hundreds of additional miles.
We really have been waiting our entire lives for this. Ronald Reagan, both Bush Presidents, and even Bill Clinton all promised to secure the border, only to abandon the project when Congress refused to give them the funding. Trump, however, stuck to his guns and used his lawful powers as President to declare a National Emergency and reprogram Defense funds to get the project started.
Trump's emergency order -- which was upheld by the Supreme Court -- is the only reason the wall is being built.
Democrats have tried twice this year to revoke the emergency order and pull the border wall funding. On each occasion, they got two dozen GOPers to vote with them and pass the anti-border wall bill. That wasn't enough, however, to override Trump's veto.
That should have been the end of it. But this week, Democrats believe that the third time's the charm. They are scheduling a vote to completely shut down all border wall construction!
Trump was able to fund the border wall project because, well, the law says he can. Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, if the President determines that something constitutes a "national emergency," he can move funding around in the government to address the crisis.
Without a doubt, the unsecured border constitutes a National Emergency. Trump's declaration allowed him to reprogram Defense Dept. money to start border wall construction immediately.
Democrats have tried twice to pull the funding. But each time, they put their measure forward as a standalone bill. Without any leverage to force Trump to sign it, the President was free to veto it.
As I said, the Democrats are going to try to defund the border wall this week and this time, they believe they have the leverage to push it through.
If Republicans do not agree to fully defund the border wall project, then Democrats are threatening to block the Defense and Homeland Security spending bills from passing. What that means is that the the 5.5 million Americans working in the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security would stop receiving paychecks after December 20.
The Left has hit an all new low. They are threatening to deny military families their Christmas paychecks unless the GOP agrees to shut down border wall construction for good.
They know that these national security spending bills are considered "must pass." They know that Republicans will never risk shutting down the Defense Department. Two dozen Republicans voted with the Left on a standalone bill to cancel the border wall project. Democrats are hoping to get another dozen GOPers once they start holding the country's national security hostage.
The GOP will cave. They do it every year. The whole reason that Trump had to declare a national emergency is because for two straight years, the Republicans caved under the Left's pressure and passed spending bills without border wall funding in it...
And unless you stop them, the GOP and Dems are going to do it again!
The deadline to pass these spending bills is December 20. That means that no matter what, Congress must start holding the first votes this week.
Democrats are refusing to budge. And we are already hearing that Republicans are beginning to turn on the President and agreeing to shutdown the border wall project.
This is all going to start happening very fast. If we have any hope of stopping this latest anti-Border Wall scheme, you need to take action right now!
No surrender,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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