WHAT NATIONAL EMERGENCY?

President Trump says he will declare a national emergency to build his wall if the Democrats refuse to fund it

By Howie Katz

Big Jolly Times
January 27, 2019

The longest government shutdown in history is over. The Democrats claimed that President Trump held 800,000 government employees hostage for his border wall. Polls show that the president’s approval rating plunged to 34 percent. That’s probably why Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks.

Trump says that if Congress doesn’t come to an agreement by February 15 that includes funding for his wall, he will declare a national emergency to build it.

A national emergency? Illegal immigration as a national emergency is a real stretch. It would be a national emergency if Mexico fired rockets and floated incendiary balloons at the United States like Hamas does to Israel. A national emergency would occur if our electric grid system were to be compromised. It would be a national emergency if Russia attacked one of our NATO allies or if North Korea attacked South Korea. If all of our big banks were to fail, that would constitute a national emergency. It would be a national emergency if a catastrophic earthquake caused California to disappear in the Pacific Ocean. But illegal immigration … that hardly qualifies.

The only emergency here is the emergency Trump created for himself with his campaign promises to build a wall that Mexico would pay for. Whatever gave him the idea that Mexico, which benefits economically from the illegal immigration, would pay for his wall? By making the wall a cornerstone of his campaign, Trump has boxed himself into the mess he now finds himself in. in.

The Democrats are united in their resolute opposition to build that wall. They believe the majority of Americans do not favor building the wall. The Democratic opposition leaves Trump with only two choices. He can either shut the government down again on February 15, or he can declare a national emergency and take the $5.5 billion he wants out of the military’s construction funds.

And Trump faces another problem. If he declares a national emergency, he will probably be shot down by the courts.

Do we really need that wall? InSight Crime notes that since October, criminal organizations have smuggled more than two dozen Central American migrant groups - each numbering in the hundreds - to remote stretches of the US-Mexico border. This would indicate the need for a border wall. But while a wall would reduce the number of illegals crossing the border, large numbers of them would still be able to climb over it or burrow underneath it. A better solution would be for Trump to double or even triple the size of the Border Patrol. And the Democrats are more likely to go for that.

And what about the American people. Most are only too happy to have illegals, take care of their lawns, clean their houses, pick up the garbage, fix their roofs, fill the potholes in their streets, etc. Many businesses hire illegals, knowing that their green cards are forgeries. And you can bet cities, including Houston, employ illegals with obviously forged green cards. Even some of the most vocal opponents of illegal immigration are using illegals to mow their yards and keep their homes clean.

In 2016, after celebrating Mass on the Mexican side of the U.S. border, reporters asked Pope Francis what he thought about Trump’s campaign promise to build a border wall. He said: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel.” And in Panama on Wednesday, Francis said about the wall: “It is the fear that makes us crazy,” a subtle hint that Trump is a nutjob.

Trump, if he makes it that far, cannot win reelection with only his base - which is estimated at around 35 percent of the voters – supporting him. But Trump’s dilemma is also the Republican Party’s dilemma. That damn wall can not only bring Trump down, but it could also bring down the GOP in 2020.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tom, a Houston attorney and Republican, always takes a reasoned approach when commenting on BJT. Here is his comment on this post:

Howie: I think most people have overlooked the importance of Trump’s background and experience. He’s always run a family owned and operated business where he got everything he wanted and no one could question him. Add that to his practice of stiffing contractors after they did the work so he could negotiate a lower price and what do you have?

A president who doesn’t understand that his word isn’t law and who doesn’t understand that in politics if he’s ever going to make deals, he has to live up to his word.

It’s not just declaring a national emergency to fund a wall even though the constitution says all government expenditures have to be based on congressional appropriations. He’s threatened to issue an executive order essentially amend the Fourteenth Amendment’s definition of citizenship. And, he thinks he can do it.

His entire life experience is that he got what he wanted because he wanted it. He’s never had to answer to anyone except his father.

There is nothing wrong with the head of a family business running it like a dictator. I bet most family owned businesses are that way. But that experience doesn’t translate well into a political job like president of the United States.

He fired a secretary of state who had run a public company so big that the Trump Organization would have been a rounding error in its annual report. One of the reasons is that the secretary kept telling the president that he couldn’t do things simply because he wanted to.

And, the president has never had to look at the downstream consequences of decisions. Take his idea of using $5 billion in military construction funds to build his wall.

The military has a long history of making do. It’s only been the last few years that the World War II temporary buildings (which had a life span of five years) have disappeared from Army posts.

Part of that $5 billion might be for housing for troops and their families. Decent housing is necessary to attract and keep people in the military. Or it might be for a new high-tech logistical facility to support military operations. Or it might be a new runway at an air force base whose main runway if in terrible shape.

Military construction projects over a few hundred thousand dollars are specifically authorized by congress and subject to specific appropriations. That means that the military had to convince the civilians in the department of defense a project was necessary, then DOD had to convince congress that it was necessary and high enough on the military’s wish list to be funded. The projects to be built with that $5 billion have been in the pipeline for years. They’re probably needed badly.

During the Obama Administration, Sen. Mitch McConnell kept talking about “regular order.” The wall should be subject to regular order. Administration studies should be prepared to see if building a physical barrier is the best way to stop illegal immigration or whether the money might be better spent on something else. Then, the administration could make its case to the appropriate congressional committees which could in turn make policy judgments as to the way to proceed. That’s regular order.

One thought on immigration. Everyone should go to Youtube and watch Ann Coulter on the Bill Maher show last Friday. She made a couple of important points. Her basic premise is that the Koch brothers (and she used that phrase) and the chambers of commerce want illegal immigration for a cheap work force. And, she’s right.

It’s a whole lot cheaper to hire an illegal alien carpenter to build houses than it is to hire a journeyman American carpenter. That’s why the Trump Organization has hired illegal alien workers for some of its projects.