Politics Securing The Border With A Wall, Duh

Thats right!

 

Jason Chaffetz: Trump's border wall may get funding after all (thanks to this dirty little Washington secret)
By Jason Chaffetz | Fox News

Democratic strategist Hamza Khan and Center for Immigration Studies Andrew Arthur react to the former congressman's comments.

Can the government spend money that has not been specifically authorized by Congress? In theory – no. In practice? Absolutely.

Each year the government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on things that are not specifically authorized by Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans have been complicit in this practice.

President Donald Trump, to his credit, has worked hard to get his wall funding properly authorized. But he may ultimately do exactly what presidents before him have done: take advantage of the broken Congressional process.

Washington’s dirty little secret is that unauthorized spending is not even uncommon anymore. As a freshman member of Congress, this truth stunned me – and I was not alone. By my estimation, there were many in the body who disapproved of the practice. But to our disappointment, the body as a whole was not inclined to address the issue.

The Democrats may feign exasperation with the president potentially spending “unauthorized” money on the wall, but they have enthusiastically participated in the budgetary games that will make it possible. During the Obama administration, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated $310 billion was spent on unauthorized appropriations in FY 2016 – the last fiscal year of his presidency.

The federal budget is enormous – more than $4 trillion each year, of which roughly $1 trillion is discretionary. It is Congress’s job to authorize programs and appropriate funds for them from this $1 trillion.

However, the budget categories under which programs are authorized and funds are appropriated are very broad, and since Congress doesn’t pass specific language about every last dollar’s use, discretionary funds are inevitably used for things that Congress never specifically funds.

This is how the executive branch often gets the money it needs to do things that Congress won’t formally authorize. It finds money that has been either broadly appropriated or appropriated to a program that is expired and redirects it to a related program or purpose of its choosing.

Each year the CBO attempts to track these unauthorized expenditures. In July 2018, it reported this: “CBO has identified 1,035 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2018. Those authorizations appeared in 261 different laws and, when most recently in effect, authorized a combined annual total of $168 billion for certain agencies, programs, or functions. By CBO’s estimate, $318 billion has been appropriated for fiscal year 2018 for those agencies, programs, or functions.”

It is my belief that this practice affords a president far too much flexibility to substitute the administration’s priorities for those of Congress. Constitutionally, the budget is to be set by the people’s representatives, not by the president.

During the appropriations process, members regularly attempt to insert language limiting how the administration can spend money during the fiscal year. But these efforts often fail for two reasons.

First, Congress continues to appropriate money by continuing resolution, which just extends an existing spending bill and therefore doesn’t include these limitations. Second, the creativity of every administration stretches much further than any limitations Congress can impose.

While the broken budget process may benefit President Trump in his efforts to build the wall, it is still a broken process. We should be talking about how to fix it. Many of us believe there should not be a separate appropriations committee that regularly bypasses the work of the authorizing committees.

Until that changes, the spending will continue to be inconsistent with what is actually authorized by law.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jas...thanks-to-this-dirty-little-washington-secret

 

So you condone a president who goes against the wishes of congress and the American people? What part of Russia were you born? This would likely be another one oh his failed attempts at doing something deemed unconstitutional which seems to be often with Trump.

 

More power to him. He and his ilk have far too much disposable income. I think they should dispose of it. You know, as in down the shitter?

 

I love him. He's funny as shit!

 

What kind of healthcare do you have? Care to answer?

 

Book it. It's a done deal. Gonna happen any day now.

 

Good luck with that. Maris seldom engages in actual discussions and only dodges, diverts or distracts away from direct questions. Hmmm, who else does that?

 

Most people that ridicule Obama Care typically have better private care from their employer but regardless, they are pretty ignorant. Those that don't have better health care somewhere else are also ignorant only even more ignorant.

Me? My wife and I have excellent health care. Me, through the VA including dental and vision. My wife through a very good Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan through her employer's retirement plan. My wife doesn't have vision or dental but she takes excellent care of her teeth and her optometry is cheap. She's got to have eye surgery on both eyes but it's covered under her health plan which pays nearly all.

Now, with all this superb health care what do we support? Mind you, I've got two degrees and my wife has none. But we're not stupid so we both strongly support Obama Care. In fact, we support everything Obama did, or at least all I can think of off the top of my head.

Don't blame us, we didn't vote for Mr. Ass Hole.

 

House approves spending bill with $5.7B for border wall

By Samuel Chamberlain | Fox News

The House of Representatives Thursday approved a bill that would fund most of the federal government through early February -- and provides $5.7 billion for President Trump's long-promised border wall, increasing the chances of a partial government shutdown later this week.

Eight Republicans joined all 177 voting Democrats to oppose the measure, which passed 217-185. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is certain to fall short of the 60 votes needed for passage since the chamber's 49 Democrats are against funding the wall. That, in turn, makes it more likely that parts of the federal government, including nine of 15 Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, will cease operations at midnight Friday.

The vote came hours after Trump told House GOP leaders that he would not enact a Senate-passed package that does not provide money for the barrier.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose leaders had pushed the hardest for Trump to stand his ground on the wall issue, said in a statement: "Republicans in Congress have continually told the American people that we would fight for wall funding, and today the House of Representatives took its first step toward fulfilling that promise. The Senate must follow our lead. It’s time we do what we said and work with President Trump and the American people to secure our borders."

In a video statement tweeted Thursday afternoon, Trump said he was "fighting very hard for border security" by insisting on funding for the wall, a central promise of his 2016 presidential campaign.

"We need the wall. The Democrats know it, everybody knows it," Trump said. "It's only a game when they say, 'You don’t need the wall.' ... They want to try and do anything possible to hurt us because of the fact it’s politics. I understand that. I don’t even hold it against them, except you should always put your country first and they’re not doing that."

"Watch what happens," Trump said in concluding his statement.


Trump insists walls 'work better than anything'
Trump says funding bill must include border security; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports.

The Senate measure, which passed by voice vote late Wednesday, provided a total of $1.6 billion for border security but did not include funding for a border wall. Trump's allies had warned him that he would have even less leverage to demand wall funding after Democrats take control of the House on Jan. 3 and worried that Trump's failure to make good on his signature campaign promise could hamper his re-election campaign.

After meeting with Trump at the White House earlier Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters that Trump had told them he would not sign the measure out of "legitimate concerns for border security."

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Trump had "gotten word" to him that he would either be "getting funding to the border or he's shutting the whole thing down." A day earlier, Limbaugh complained that it appeared "Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything, including control of the House."

House passes procedural vote for a new government spending bill; House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy weighs in.

The president issued threatening tweets and a stern statement from his press secretary before calling Republican lawmakers to the White House, where he told them he wasn't on board with the Senate measure, which would fund much of the government through Feb. 8.

"I am asking Congress to defend the border of our nation," Trump said at a White House event. "Walls work, whether we like it or not."

Ratcheting up the suspense, Trump added: "I look forward to signing a bill that fulfills our fundamental duty to the American people ... we'll see what we can do."

Democratic leaders were incredulous Thursday evening, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying the president was throwing a "temper tantrum."

"Today's events have made one thing clear: President Trump is plunging the country into chaos," said Schumer, referencing the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis in addition to the pending shutdown. " ... The Trump temper tantrum may produce a government shutdown. It will not get him his wall ... Donald Trump wants a shutdown and [Republicans] seem to be so afraid that they're going to go along. We'll see."



Despite his line in the sand, Trump appeared to float one possible path to compromise, referring to "steel slats" at the border rather than the concrete barrier he'd talked about during the campaign. With that phrasing, Trump appeared to be describing fencing, to which Congress is more amenable.

The White House had previously floated another possible workaround, suggesting Trump would approve a deal with no wall dollars and pursue other funding options. Trump said he would use the military to fund and build the wall, while White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump had directed all his Cabinet secretaries to look for usable funds.

Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-approves-spending-bill-with-5b-for-border-wall

 

Obviously, it depends on what kind of healthcare I need, if any, at whatever time.

Beautiful Central Oregon has excellent healthcare facilities. We have an excellent doctor.

Care to be more specific?

 

Oh yeah, that's gonna cruise right thru the Republican Senate. It's gonna happen any day now.

 

Who is your excellent doctor, doctor Vinnie Boombatz?

 

Strange. Are you saying Trump was right?

He told Pelosi that this exact scenario would happen.