Buyer Beware?????

Or in the instance of the current government shutdown: Let he who refuses to buy beware??? After a day of watching news and further contemplating the subject of "border wall" funding, it occurs to me that the Democratic response the deal-breaker requirement of 5.6 billion dollars for physical barriers along our nation's southern border may actually wind up backfiring on the Dem's with epic repercussions.  To begin with, the request for 5.6 billion dollars for the physical barrier is a mere fraction of what Congress typically allocates for any given project or expenditure.  Basically, to quote the Great Greg Gutfeld (of "The Five") "It's chump-change."

Image Source: The Boston Globe

Moreover, 5.6 billion dollars is only a fraction of what the President actually needs in order to complete the building project along the southern border with Mexico.  The recently estimated-- per engineers-- project cost was 25 billion.  If Chuck and Nancy would just come to the table and give the President the requested 5.6 billion dollars --think the number was actually bumped up 5.7 billion this past week-- Trump might make a dent in his intended objective, thereby ultimately 'appeasing his base' --although any honest person with an ounce of common sense can see that the issues are truly bigger than this key Democratic talking point-- but the matter would then effectively be out of the 24-hour news cycle and most likely out of the annuals of history.  Come start of business on Monday, President Trump will have made history by taking credit for the longest shutdown ever in our government's history, a shutdown which claims to be in the national security interest of "We the People."  And quite frankly, I honestly believe historians will back this claim up, even if a dishonest media fails to do so in the near-term.

By continuing to hold out, in the absence of any willingness to engage in meaningful negotiations the Democrats not only wind up with a big FAT nothing --forgoing any chance of an immediate and concrete deal for the Dreamers-- they once again wind up making President Trump larger than life, both in terms of news coverage and ultimately history.  You see, if President Trump does make good on his promise to declare a "national emergency," he instantly goes even BIGGER and bolder.  In such a scenario the President winds up making HISTORY in the name of fighting to protect the American people and legal immigrants living within the borders of the United States, because it seems unlikely, given previous legal precedence (i.e., fact that no Supreme Court ruling has ever overturned a President's "National Emergency" declaration, which is further solidified by the 1976 "National Emergency" legislation passed by Congress) that any challenge in the court system to the President's declaration will ultimately be upheld by the Supreme Court.  More importantly, in a national emergency scenario Trump will likely wind up with way more funding to work with than the initially requested 5.6 billion dollars --and I happen to believe there are other avenues for funding than raiding the natural disaster relief fund.   Increased funds will only serve to further fuel successes where the President's Border Security end objectives are concerned.  Bottom line, come 2020 "We the People" are going to remember who was playing politics and who was actually acting on our behalf.

1/16/2018  I found myself thinking today that perhaps in this instance numbers speak louder than words? President Trump gave a lot of meaningful and quite frankly irrefutable numbers in his oval office address on the state of our nation's security w.r.t. immigration. The main argument I keep hearing from the Left, over and over again, is that "walls are expensive and ineffective."  The problem is I haven't seen the actual numbers (i.e., specific place and statistics, not to mention costs) proving this claim to hold an ounce of credible truth.  I have, however, seen countless statistics to the contrary indicating that walls do in point of fact WORK. With this in mind, I think the White House should post the numbers on its website showing specific instances where walls have worked and then challenge its opponents to post numbers of their own to support their claims.

And I'm sorry, but I have hard time believing "We the People" won't see the Democrats current position on this government shutdown as anything BUT political when they are on record --by way of votes, video footage, quotes, etc.-- in support of a border barrier funding in the past.  Think the wax of the media shine is about to wear off .....

1/18/2019  It really gives me a renewed hope for mankind, and our nation in particular, to see so many people stepping up to the plate to help those 800,000 government employees who are having to go without pay during this most recent government shutdown.  I've seen everything from food pantry donations, donated gift cards and go-fund me pages, to people willing to temporarily hire these workers in order to give them a source of income to keep their heads above water.  These government workers are true heroes, staying the course in the face of adversity that our nation might finally have hope of beginning to address a decades long problem (i.e., immigration reform) that our Congressional leaders have repeatedly failed to address for mostly partisan, political reasons.  In fact, I was at the airport about a week ago and the lines were moving and TSA agents were actually smiling.  It was amazing!  I also have give President Trump for finally drawing a line in the sand and not backing down.  I only hope both sides can come to the table and hammer out a meaningful deal that finally gets the ball rolling on true comprehensive immigration reform, and I have to say making that President Trump's offer to make the Dreamers LEGAL --not just temporarily protected by a "pen & paper" Executive Order-- is a most excellent open to negotiations moving forward.  It's time for the Democrats to finally have their actions back up their years worth of rhetoric where Dreamers are concerned, because those who fully support Dreamers are going to take the outcome of this negotiation the polls in 2020.