The United States government and legislature have become paralyzed because the President is demanding Congress fund something he explicitly promised the American people we would never have to pay for. The President’s immigration ideas were rejected repeatedly by a GOP Congress these past two years. Not content with that, seeking in essence a legislative do-over, the President shuts the government down right before Christmas after agreeing not to.
Both the Senate and House have passed bills which would re-open the government but fund DHS only through February so cooler heads could prevail and a deal on border policy could get worked out. Even this reasonable path, supported by both parties and both chambers, has been rejected by the President. Instead, he keeps the government shut down, causing
real harm to the country.
And now the President’s ransom note is becoming clearer. $5.7b for more wall, $800m for detention facilities, controversial and potentially illegal changes in immigration law. He is asking for all this to be passed by Congress before reopening the government without going through regular order — no hearings, no studies, no debates, no votes. The
letter and presentation the President sent to Congress justifying his demands was sophomoric, unpersuasive and
reinforced how crazy his demands are.
He has still NEVER EXPLAINED why more wall is needed — where would it go? Has flow increased in those areas? Has the border been penetrated in ways it wasn’t before? We don’t have answers to these simple questions. The legislative changes he is asking for are complicated, may violate both domestic and international law, and may be, in his hands, dangerous. Mad King George has returned to America after an absence of hundreds of years.