GOP asked to choose between Trump, Constitution

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Marc A. Thiessen (Thiessen is usually a Trump sycophant.)

The Washington Post

If the goal is to build a border wall, then President Trump has made the wrong decision at every turn.

In early 2018, Trump had the opportunity to secure $25 billion in funding for his border wall in exchange for legal status for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients. Instead of taking the deal, he blew up the negotiations with his “s—-hole” countries remark and by demanding changes to legal immigration policy.

Then in June, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $1.6 billion for 65 miles of fencing by an overwhelming bipartisan 26-5 margin. This could easily have passed the House and Senate. Instead, Trump later shut down the government over wall funding and demanded $5.7 billion. Result? After a disastrous 35-day shutdown, he got less — $1.38 billion — than he would have if he had just gone along with the bipartisan deal six months earlier.

Now, the smart move for Trump would have been to pocket that $1.38 billion and bolster it with another $3.1 billion he could arguably use without a declaration of a national emergency, by reprogramming $600 million from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture fund and $2.5 billion from the Defense Department’s drug interdiction program. That would have given him $4.48 billion in wall funding, nearly the full amount he was demanding from Congress. Then, in December, he could demand more money with leverage over Democrats when an automatic sequester kicks in, forcing $55 billion in across-the-board cuts to domestic discretionary spending unless Trump agrees to raise spending caps.

Instead, Trump has made the wrong move once again: declaring a national emergency, despite warnings from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and other Republicans that it could provoke a backlash from within his own party.

-more-

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/thiessen-gop-asked-to-choose-between-trump-constitution/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=02aa012039-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-02aa012039-228635337

[More_Cowbell]

1. He's still a sycophant

Saying that Trump should take $2.5 billion from the drug interdiction program, which actually works, to divert it to a wall that will not.