Congress is not even in session and Republicans are still in control until Thursday, but that didn’t stop President Donald Trump from demanding Democrats return from vacation to vote on his ego wall on Monday morning.
As the government shutdown continues to drag on, Trump has spent his morning ranting about his border wall demands on Twitter, including flip-flopping on what kind of wall he wants by going back to demanding a concrete wall after weeks of claiming to want a steel slat wall.
Trump has also continually blamed Democrats for the shutdown even though he took ownership of it on video during a meeting in the very Oval Office he claimed to be tweeting from when he demanded Democrats return to Washington to vote on wall funding.
I’m in the Oval Office. Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall. You voted yes in 2006 and 2013. One more yes, but with me in office, I’ll get it built, and Fast!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
It’s incredible how Democrats can all use their ridiculous sound bite and say that a Wall doesn’t work. It does, and properly built, almost 100%! They say it’s old technology – but so is the wheel. They now say it is immoral- but it is far more immoral for people to be dying!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
The problem is that most lawmakers, including Republicans, are on holiday break. Republican leaders gaveled Congress out of session for the remainder of the year and it would be up to those Republicans to gavel it back in session since they still control Congress until January 3rd, when the new session begins.
And Democrats are not going to vote for Trump’s wall funding when they can wait until they take control of the House and negotiate from a much stronger position.
Furthermore, claiming that a wall will be “almost 100%” effective is just a plain lie. We’re talking about a 1,954-mile long border. A wall can not only be climbed over or tunneled under, but it can also be flown over by plane and sailed around by boat. And a fact-check has already debunked Trump’s claim that a wall will stop illegal drugs from entering the country because most drugs come through legal ports of entry.
The money for Trump’s wall would be better spent boosting Border Patrol staff and giving them new technology to monitor the border.
As for Democrats voting in 2006 and 2013, that was for border fencing and border fencing maintenance, which is far cheaper for taxpayers than starting from scratch with a wall costing tens of billions of dollars that would still need billions every year for maintenance in perpetuity on something that does nothing to solve the problems.
Democrats have already voted for increased border security funding, but Trump rejected it because it didn’t include money for a wall. And even $5 billion is not enough to build the entire wall that Trump wants, which means he’ll just keep shutting the government down every time he wants more.
It’s not good dealmaking or good governing.
Featured Image: Screenshot
