Donald Trump flew into the White House casting executive orders about with all the power of a whirlwind. He has leaped over conventions and smashed as much of President Barack Obama’s accomplishments as possible. A group of bipartisan senators has discovered a way to thwart POTUS’ latest scheme.
Trump promised his base that he would build a wall along America’s southern border to keep out the hordes of people coming to attack them, and Mexico would even pay for the cost of building it. There were three major problems with this invention.
First off, Mexico most emphatically was not going to pay for it, plus a wall would not keep people out. Then too, the people were families with young children who were seeking asylum from persecution and dire poverty in Central America.
This was a slice of how Trump’s solutions evolved:
- Demand the funds to build the wall
- Turn down lawmakers billions for a wall in a bill he did not like
- Try to insult and bully legislators into giving him the money
- Close down the government for a month
- Take refugee children away from their parents
- Cage the refugees
- Deport people who have lived and worked here for decades with American children
- Deport people with gravely ill children, and send them back to certain death
- Take money from the military, instead of it building schools, daycares, and other serious projects.
Yet, the Senate has not remained inactive. This week they will force a vote, going around the self-described grim reaper, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s stranglehold on legislation. The resolution would end Trump’s emergency declaration that he instituted last February.
Every six months the Senate can force a vote, according to the National Emergencies Act of 1976. Last March, their resolution passed, but the president vetoed it. This time, the Democrats have enlisted 12 Republicans to sign on with them. The resolution is “privileged.” That meant the Senate must vote on it. Even Republicans on the floor cannot block it.
The bipartisanship was possible, because the Republican lawmakers were vulnerable in their swing states.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, according to Vox:
‘The Trump administration has proposed pilfering funds from projects in 23 states, three US territories and military installations in 20 countries, including $80 million from projects in North Carolina. How do we say to the men and women who risked their lives for us … that we’re taking their money away?’
Democrats know that there will not be enough votes to pass, but what they will accomplish is putting individual Republicans’ position on the wall and against the military on the record.
Trump took $3.6 billion that was to slotted to fund 127 projects in nearly half of the states. That means, Democrats can use Republicans’ votes against them in their states and in the 2020 election. Basically, each Senator will be on record either supporting POTUS’ great raid on the military or for their people.
The great raid also pinched natural disaster recovery monies in Puerto Rico.
Featured image via Twitter.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
