Cave: Rather Than Dare the Democrats to Shut Down the Government Over Spending on a Program They Didn't Want, Republicans Cave and Propose Budget with No Funding for Border Wall

So here's how this works:

Republicans can't shut down the government to stop Obamafunding because if you shut down the government you'll be blamed and lose seats. So Republicans must cave.

Democrats can shut down the government with no negative consequences to them, and therefore Republicans must cave when Democrats are going to shut down the government.

Rush Limbaugh was complaining about this dynamic yesterday, saying he had hoped Trump would be the guy who would stand up to the dominant paradigm and say the old rules no longer apply. But apparently not. (Clip after the fold.)

This isn't just Trump's fault -- a lot of Republicans are against the wall and don't want to have to take a vote on it either way. So it's once again Failure Theater -- darn it, those Democrats are stopping us from doing the things we claim we want to do but in fact would always refuse to do!

But it's also a reflection of Trump's relative weakness at the moment -- if he were more popular, he would force fucking Bob Corker and Paul Ryan to vote against the wall and show their colors to the dummies who keep reelecting them.

But he needs some people on his side, so he has to cave to the Republican upscale suburban Establishment that always gets its way.

Think about the MODERATES!!!

So the GOP will be presenting a budget that contains no funding for the wall that Congress actually authorized to be build in 2006, but didn't bother to appropriate money for ("Build the dang fence" -- John McCain, 2010, in a campaign ad when running for reelection), and will only ask for some additional money for enforcement.

The enforcement part of the Trump Administration -- the part where Sessions can just enforce the laws on the books without having to get permission from Congress -- is bearing some fruit. Maybe. The number of illegals intercepted at the border is down 40%, which you can take to mean that fewer illegals are trying to enter the country, or that Trump is actually intercepting a lower percentage than Obama did. (It wouldn't be Trump doing that, I assume, but employees of the US government acting in rebellion.

And the number of deportations back to Mexico is actually down too-- I don't know if "deportation" means real deportations of people already inside the country, or deportations as Obama began defining it to pad his "deportation" numbers, by conflating deportations and mere interceptions/turn-aways at the border.

So I don't even know if the tougher enforcement is having a positive effect, or if the effort is being sabotaged by #TheResistance.

Below, Rush delivers the bad news.

I hope Trump realizes that our tolerance for his shakiness in standing up his government and in delivering on promises is not without limits.

posted by Ace at 01:45 PM

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