Last week, Senate Republicans forced a vote on a "clean" spending bill. What that means is that it would have blocked most of the Democrats's spending amendments and left current federal funding relatively untouched.
This is important for President Trump's border wall project. Homeland Security says that the construction projects in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and now Texas are on pace to continue putting up a mile of new wall every day. In a little over a week, the administration will hit a major milestone: 100 miles of new border wall built.
As you know, President Trump was forced to reprogram Defense Department funds to get the border wall project up and running. Both Democrats and Republicans refused to fund it, so Trump had to go it alone.
Republicans proceeded to vote not once, but TWICE to override Trump's border wall order and pull the funding. Each time, however, Trump vetoed the resolution. Both times, the establishment came up short of the two-thirds supermajority necessary to override Trump's veto.
Trump decided to punch back. Immediately after vetoing the most recent anti-border wall bill, the President approved an additional 200 million in funding for the wall. This money was going to go towards anti-drug missions in Afghanistan. Instead, it will now go towards building the wall and stopping drug traffickers from entering our country.
The GOP was furious. They ordered Trump to stop border wall construction and he fired back by approving even more funding so the wall can stretch even farther. If all goes well, this new funding will now allow the government to build more than 500 miles of border wall over the next year.
This new funding will now allow for dozens of miles of additional border wall. Instead of the government building 505 miles over the next year, that number is now creeping towards 550 miles...
This is what we have been waiting for: a President willing to do whatever is necessary to secure the border and keep the American people safe. But now that the wall is finally going up, these GOP traitors want to intervene and shut it down!
Chuck Schumer and the Democrats vowed to block any appropriations bills that include funding for the border wall. Nancy Pelosi has now said that no bill will ever reach the House floor if it allows Border Wall construction to continue.
McConnell offered Democrats a compromise. He attached the clean Defense Department funding bill to big funding increases for domestic agencies like Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education. But Democrats held the line and voted the bill down. Again, Democrat leaders told Republicans that the government will shutdown unless the GOP agrees to pull the plug on the border wall project.
They are demanding that Republicans add a one-sentence amendment to the bill, prohibiting any Pentagon funds from being "obligated, expended, or otherwise used to design or carry out a project to construct, replace, or modify a wall, fence, or other physical barrier along the international border between the United States and Mexico.”
If this amendment passes, then all border wall construction would stop. It would claw back all of the funding that Trump has already reprogrammed. Not only that, but it would even outlaw border wall repairs.
That is the "deal" that Democrats are now offering the GOP: cut off Trump's border wall funding or else face a complete government shutdown.
The Left has already flipped almost two-dozen Republicans: Senators Alexander, Blunt, Collins, Lee, Moran, Murkowski, Paul, Portman, Romney, Toomey, and Wicker and Representatives Amash, Fitzpatrick, Herrera-Beutler, Katko, Johnson (SD), Massie, Rodgers (WA), Rooney (FL), Sensenbrenner, Stefanik, Upton, and Walden. They have all voted on-the-record to cancel the border wall funding.
While that is not enough to override Trump's veto, it is enough to pass an appropriations package.
The House and Senate can pass a bill with a simple majority using a process known as reconciliation. The reconciliation process can only apply to bills dealing with the budget and Federal spending. Basically, when the House and Senate pass different versions of the same same spending bill, the leadership of both sides meet behind closed doors and come up with a "compromise" bill. That "compromise" legislation can then be passed in both chambers through just a simple majority.
In order for the Senate to pass a Democrat reconciliation bill, only 4 GOPers would need to flip. That is what the Leftists and their Establishment allies are pushing for now.
Democrats know the GOP is terrified of being blamed for another government shutdown and are now holding the Federal government's funding hostage to kill the border wall project.
If the GOP caves on this, there is no coming back.
It really does all come down to this. President Trump is doing everything he can to secure the border. He just reprogrammed an additional 200 million to expand the border wall project and construction crews are working as fast as they can to build the new wall sections.
At this pace, the government will complete between 500 and 550 miles of NEW border wall in the next twelve months.
But Democrats are now pressuring Republicans to shut it all down... and it is working!
President Trump can't do this all on his own. He needs YOUR help to stop this GOP open border surrender before it gets pushed through
And Trump needs your help right now!
Don't let them block the border wall!
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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