The federal government partially shut down this morning after Senate Republicans ducked into the bushes and refused to use the “nuclear option” to provide $5.7 billion to build a border wall to stop illegal immigration.
The Senate reconvenes today to continue discussion about a spending bill to reopen the myriad unconstitutional agencies that are closed.
The question is whether President Trump, who has insisted the country needs a border wall to protect its sovereignty and stop the never-ending inflow of illegal aliens, will stand firm, or sign a bill that does not provide wall money.
Senate Worthless
Trump almost got the wall he wanted, but once again, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.; shown) and Senate Republicans surrendered after a week of Trump’s manning the ramparts to protect American sovereignty.
Last week as the December 21 deadline to pass a money bill approached, Trump demanded wall money in a meeting with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The anti-American Democrats said no. Both subversives told the president he couldn’t get a bill through the House or the Senate. In that case, Trump said, I’ll proudly own the shutdown.
Warned Trump, “I will shut down the government absolutely. And I am proud, and I’ll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. Because the people of this country don’t want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into this country. So I will take the mantel, I will be the one to shut it down. I won’t blame you for it.”
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After a meeting on Thursday, where Trump told wobble-kneed House Speaker Paul Ryan and his Republican cohort he wouldn’t sign a bill without wall money, the House passed a measure with the $5.7 billion.
That proved Pelosi wrong and left it up to McConnell. Trump urged the jelly-spined Kentuckian to use the so-called nuclear option that allows the majority to shut down debate and pass a bill.
McConnell refused, and instead proceeded with a vote on a wall-funding bill that could not pass. Though the GOP prevailed 48-47, the bill did not pass because it did not have the 60-vote supermajority required by Senate rules.
Schumer knew he would win. The radical leftists who run the Democratic Party long ago correctly gauged the fear and cowardice of their GOP colleagues. When the going gets tough, the pachyderms are guaranteed to stampede in the wrong direction.
““In a short time, the Senate will take part in a pointless exercise to demonstrate to our House colleagues and the president what everyone here already knows,” Schumer said before the vote. “There are not the votes for an expensive, taxpayer funded border wall. So, President Trump, you will not get your wall. Abandon your shutdown strategy. You’re not getting your wall today, next week, or on January 3 when Democrats take control of the House.”
And so McConnell abandoned the nuclear option that his predecessor, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, used as ruthlessly as a Mafia capo’s ordering a noonday rubout.
After the defeat in the Senate, Trump tweeted a video message that depicted violent migrants storming borders: “Our great country must have border security. We don’t want people coming in that aren’t supposed to be here.”
What Shut Down?
Though the government has partially “shut down,” it really hasn’t shut down. Essential government functions never shut down, which raises the question of why we need non-essential functions.
The shutdown does affect many worthless, unconstitutional agencies. “As in previous government shutdowns,” the New York Times reported, “it will not affect core government functions like the Postal Service, the military, the Department of Veterans Affairs and entitlement programs, including Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and food stamps.”
Nearly 400,000 employees “would be sent home” without pay. “Another 420,000 considered too essential to be furloughed would be forced, like the Border Patrol officers, to work without pay.”
As well, the Times reported, the “Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior — which includes national parks — Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury would all be affected. NASA would also be hit.”
The Senate reconvenes at noon. CNN reported that “the hope is McConnell will have a deal to announce when the Senate reconvenes at noon.”
Photo of Sen. Mitch McConnell: U.S. Senate
