Forgive the inelegant remark, but recalling it helps when it is necessary to listen to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer. Some commentator or politician several years ago, apparently in a rather crude illusion to the garbage Mr. Schumer spews forth, referred to the senator as “Sump Pump Schumer.” We promise not to use the term again.
Anyway, the distinguished senator from New York has decided that torpedoing President Trump’s border wall with Mexico would score him and the Democrats some political points, so that’s his plan.
Chuck Schumer has concluded that denying President Trump his wall is perhaps the surest major defeat Democrats can hand the President in his first year.
Trump needs 60 Senate votes to fund construction of his “great wall” along the Southern border. Unlike healthcare or tax reform, Republicans can’t use the budget process to ram the wall funding through Congress using only Republican votes.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Recall that it was Democrat Senator Harry Reid who led the effort that got rid of the “super-majority” rule for the ratification of all judicial appointees except for those to the Supreme Court. And that’s not all that the Democrat got exempted from the 60 vote requirement. Does anyone think that President Trump wouldn’t press to get rid of the 60 vote rule for everything else, especially if his border wall were at stake?
- Schumer’s thinking: There’s nothing the Republicans would be willing to offer that could get Trump the eight Democratic Senators he needs to fund the wall. Mitch McConnell’s only other option would be to invoke the nuclear option and bypass the filibuster. But Democratic appropriators are betting the Republican leader won’t be willing to undermine such a fundamental Senate tradition just to pay for Trump’s wall.
That might be a bad bet. The Democrats got rid of it to push judicial appointments. We shall see.
- The evolving plan, being discussed by Schumer’s office and Senate appropriators: If Republicans put money for the wall into a bill, Democrats block it. It doesn’t matter what else is in the bill — Schumer will make it about the wall.
Mr. Schumer is taking a risk there. And he is assuming the Republicans won’t put something else in the bill that eight of the Democrats cannot vote against. He might be right. Again, we’ll see.
- What happens next: Team Trump knows it’s not going to be easy to fund the wall. A source familiar with the administration’s plans says the preferred strategy would be to attach the wall funding to the bill that funds the military. That way, Republicans could tell the public that Schumer and the Democrats are blocking money not only for border security but for our troops. They’ll run relentless attack ads against Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2018 in states that Trump won.
Given the fact that politicians are typically more loyal to their own reelection campaigns than anything else in the world, that strategy by President Trump’s team might work.
- What happens if Schumer wins: A second source familiar with the administration’s thinking said that even if Democrats block funding, the administration will find ways to get by in the short term. “We have enough money to get a decent amount of the wall done in first year,” the source said. “We can reprioritize some funding within [the Department of Homeland Security]. … It’s not like work would come to a complete halt.”
Now there’s a good rule of life — always have a Plan B.
The likelihood of Mr. Schumer stopping the wall is not good. He’s barking up the wrong tree. Which is fine by us.
Source: Axios
Re-election 2018 is coming !!!!!
Please, please, go away with Pelosi!!!