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Pelosi, Schumer Threaten Another Shutdown

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President Donald Trump’s pursuit of funding for his border wall will only lead to another government shutdown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned on Sunday. . .

In a joint statement, the Democratic leaders said they hope Trump “learned his lesson” from the last partial government shutdown because additional efforts to secure border wall funds will fail.

“President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shut down the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall, which he promised would be paid for by Mexico,” they said.

“Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,” the leaders continued. “We hope he learned his lesson.” . . .

Pelosi and Schumer issued their statement in response to reports that indicated Trump plans to ask Congress for $8.6 billion in funding for a border wall. Trump’s request would come in his proposed budget for fiscal year 2020. (Read more from “Pelosi, Schumer Threaten Another Shutdown” HERE)

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Oh, so Typical: The Shut Down Deadline Is Friday. When Do You Think the Text of the Budget Deal Will Be Released?

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So now that Democrats are in charge of Congress, will the bad practice of dropping the legislative text of major budget deals just a day before lawmakers are supposed to vote end?

LOL nope!

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and the one before that.

(For more from the author of “Oh, so Typical: The Shut Down Deadline Is Friday. When Do You Think the Text of the Budget Deal Will Be Released?” please click HERE)

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One Shutdown Is Over but Another One Is in the Near Future

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Honestly, I wish he had maintained the shutdown until Democrats felt the heat and started seeing the light. Of course, I am not one of the 800,000 furloughed federal employees. It’s not fun not to take in a paycheck, to wonder how you are going to pay the rent. I have worked without getting paid in the past. At first, I was tempted to quit right away. Fortunately, I held my peace and backpay came my way. I am sure well-meaning people who work for the Feds are glad that they can be fed and feed their families.

Still, the federal government employs too many people. A cursory list of the furloughed federal workers from US Senator Pat Leahy reveals 3,600 weather forecasters. I can watch Fake News to get the real scoop on the weather. How about laying off the 52,000 IRS employees and abolishing the federal income tax, too? They’ve been on everyone else’s phones and monitoring their emails. It’s time for them to get real jobs and stop living off our tax dollars (literally and figuratively).

Last week, libertarian conservative John Stossel showcased the power of the people, the individual American citizens who picked up their own trash (and other people’s). The TSA should be privatized ASAP. Better yet, why even have them, since some studies suggest that their invasive searches into our luggage—and our bodies—is not that effective. Israel has two walls, but they don’t have their own version of the TSA. Can we switch with them? . . .

The Democratic Party is not going to sign off on any compromise which will undermine their future. President Trump needs to get work and realize that there is no “Art of the Deal” to fix this Washington crisis. Abraham Lincoln didn’t make a deal with Democrats during the Civil War. They either had to accept the results of Election 1860 or leave the country. Besides, he had compromised during his first campaign, stating that he would not abolish slavery, but stop its spread to further territories.

President Trump has compromised enough. On security of our nation there can be no compromise. Lincoln broke the law by directly appropriating funds from the United States Treasury to ready the Union army. The tens of thousands of Latin American migrants marching toward and crowding around our Southern Border is a national emergency. President Trump, build that wall! Declare a national emergency, and spare no expense to secure the homeland! (Read more from “One Shutdown Is Over but Another One Is in the Near Future” HERE)

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Trump Did NOT Cave

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Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer couldn’t contain their glee when the President agreed last week to a short term continuing resolution to reopen the government for three weeks. But this was not a win for the Democrats and no one should interpret it that way. First, only a few agencies were shut down, so the constant hyping of the shutdown by the media was a deliberate effort to magnify the problem to assist their Democrat allies.

But since one of the agencies was the Department of Homeland Security, it not only forced the Border Patrol to work without pay, but began creating problems for travelers as TSA personnel began skipping work. Those people who did skip work — about 10 percent of the workforce — did not do that independently. You can be sure they got the green light from their union, the American Federation of Government Employees , which coordinated with congressional Democrats (read Pelosi & Schumer), to ramp up pressure on the president.

Of course this is yet another way Democrats demonstrate their utter disregard for the American people. They knew that a disruption in travel plans would make another great optic for their media allies, who had already begun hyping the “soup kitchen” narrative. Meanwhile, realizing the publicity opportunity, or perhaps wanting to stick it to President Trump, or both, DC restaurants began offering free food to those poor government workers! (For more from the author of “Trump Did NOT Cave” please click HERE)

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Here’s the Draft of Trump’s Order Declaring a National Emergency to Build the Border Wall

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By The Blaze. President Donald Trump is planning to declare a national emergency at the border and use the powers from such a declaration to order the construction of a border wall, according to a draft of the order published by CNN. . .

“The massive amount of aliens who unlawfully enter the United States each day is a direct threat to the safety and security of our nation and constitutes a national emergency,” reads the draft order.

“Now, therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C 1601, et seq.), hereby declare that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States,” the draft says.

Critics of the president have warned that if he were to take such an action that it would likely be met with legal challenges. Even some Republicans have cautioned against using the emergency powers of the executive in this manner.

(Read more from “Here’s the Draft of Trump’s Order Declaring a National Emergency to Build the Border Wall” HERE)

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Trump Issues New Position on Border Wall as Congress Debates Deal to End Shutdown

By The Blaze. President Donald Trump signaled Thursday that he was willing to make a concession to Democrats on funding for his border wall in order to strike a deal and reopen the government.

The government has been partially shut down for 34 days, and is affecting about 800,000 federal employees directly.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated that the president was willing to accept less than the $5.7 billion for border wall funding in a continuing resolution deal, as long as it contained a “down payment” for the wall.

Trump then addressed reporters on negotiations between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to reopen the government on a continuing budget resolution.

“Well one of the ideas suggested is they open it,” Trump said, apparently referring to the government, “they pay a sort of a prorated down payment for the wall, which I think, people will agree, that you need.” (Read more from “Trump Issues New Position on Border Wall as Congress Debates Deal to End Shutdown” HERE)

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Top Democrat Congressman Calls for Democrats to ‘Give Trump the Money’ for Border Wall

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By Daily Wire. Minnesota Democrat Rep. Collin Peterson said in an interview this week that the Democrats should give President Donald Trump the money that he wants to build the border wall on the southern border.

Peterson, the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told KFGO’s “News & Views” on Tuesday that “when I bring up what I have to say [to Democrats], they look at me cross-eyed.”

“Give Trump the money,” Peterson said, adding that he would “give him the whole thing … and put strings on it so you make sure he puts the wall where it needs to be.”

“Why are we fighting over this?” Peterson continued. “We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.”

In an interview with the MinnPost on Wednesday, Peterson tried to clarify his remarks after enraging Democrats in Washington, D.C., highlighting that he specifically stated that there needed to be strings attached to the money to make sure that it is spent responsibly. (Read more from “Top Democrat Congressman Calls for Democrats to ‘Give Trump the Money’ for Border Wall” HERE)

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Shutdown Fallout Intensifies, as Officials Signal Stalemate Could Last Much Longer

By Fox News. Furloughed federal workers are bracing to miss their second paycheck and employee unions are warning of increasingly dire consequences since the partial government shutdown began last month, as officials signal the stalemate in Washington has no end in sight.

The government partially shut down in December after Congress failed to pass a spending package funding parts of the government, forcing some federal workers to be furloughed or work without pay. President Trump is demanding $5.7 billion for a barrier on the southern border with Mexico as part of a spending deal, something Democratic leaders are rejecting outright.

Those whose jobs are affected by the shutdown are now speaking out more forcefully about the impact on their own lives but also safety issues for the broader public.

“This is already the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States and there is no end in sight,” said a joint statement released Wednesday by leaders of three associations representing air traffic controllers, airline pilots and flight attendants.

It continued: “In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break. It is unprecedented.” (Read more from “Shutdown Fallout Intensifies, as Officials Signal Stalemate Could Last Much Longer” HERE)

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GoFundMe Launches Its Own Fundraiser to Help Federal Workers Who Aren’t Getting Paid

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GoFundMe has launched a fundraiser on its platform to help the 800,000 federal workers who aren’t getting paid during the partial government shutdown.

The organization has partnered with Deepak Chopra to create a relief fund for workers who’ve been either furloughed or have been required to continue working without pay for the past month. Chopra is an Indian-born American author and alternative medicine advocate.

“Government workers, through no fault of their own, can’t afford to put diapers on their newborns,” GoFundMe CEO Rob Solomon wrote in news release on the website. “Employees of the most powerful nation in the world are being forced to work without pay and line up at diaper or food banks. It makes no sense.” . .

The donations will be given directly to nonprofits that are assisting federal employees with food, counseling, housing support, and other needs. . .

More than $170,000 had been raised by Tuesday morning since the page was launched over the weekend. (Read more from “GoFundMe Launches Its Own Fundraiser to Help Federal Workers Who Aren’t Getting Paid” HERE)

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Former Democratic Adviser Has a Proposal to End the Shutdown That Includes Wall Funding, but There’s a Catch

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It’s the longest government shutdown in American history. When will it end? Nobody knows. House Democrats and President Trump are not budging from their positions that set off this chain of events. Trump wants $5 billion for a border wall. Democrats don’t want to give him one cent. One side wants to secure our borders, curb illegal immigration, human trafficking, and the transportation of narcotics. The other side doesn’t. For the Left, it’s all about sticking it to Trump. And so, the shutdown drags on. So, what could break the impasse? How about giving Trump everything he wants in terms of border wall funding in exchange for…the Robert Mueller protection bill Democrats, and some Republicans, have been clamoring about? Now, Morley Winograd, a senior policy adviser to former Vice President Al Gore, floated the idea, which for argument’s sake—isn’t necessarily that off base in terms of having a discussion. At the same time, Winograd thinks the shutdown is a way to distract us from the pending Mueller report (via Brookings):

To end the government shutdown, the Democrats should give Trump what he wants—$5 billion for the wall—and insist in return on what the country needs: complete protection of the Mueller investigation and the full public disclosure of its report.

President Trump’s shutdown is nothing more than a shiny bauble to distract the American public from the real threat to the president’s future—Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation and his forthcoming report. The president has insisted that he will not agree to reopen parts of the federal government, even those agencies whose functions have nothing to do with border security unless Congress appropriates $5.7 billion to start fulfilling his most well-known campaign promise to create a wall on the Mexican border. Even as this idea has morphed from Mexico paying for the wall to U.S. taxpayers picking up the tab, and from a concrete barrier to a set of steel slats, Trump has continued to insist his presidency depends on its construction.

There is a simple way to get past Trump’s latest PR stunt and end the government shutdown at the same time.

The House Democrats should pass all the remaining appropriations bills that have passed both the House and the Senate at least once already—but with just a few amendments. The first change would be to add up to $5.7 billion for construction of an effective barrier on the southern border as Trump has insisted upon. The second set of changes would be to insert and amend the current bipartisan Senate bill designed to protect Robert Mueller’s investigation and his ultimate report.

(Read more from “Former Democratic Adviser Has a Proposal to End the Shutdown That Includes Wall Funding, but There’s a Catch” HERE)

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Pelosi Claims Trump Should Postpone SOTU Because of Shutdown — but Here’s What’s Really Going On

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Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to postpone his State of the Union address or deliver it in writing as long as the government remains shut down.

Pelosi claimed in her letter that due to the shutdown, Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service will be unable to provide adequate security during his address.

“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th,” Pelosi wrote.

This seems like a cover for ulterior motives. If security on Capitol Hill is good enough for Congress to meet daily and Trump to meet with members of Congress safely, it should be good enough for the State of the Union address. It’s more likely Pelosi is trying to deprive President Trump of the national spotlight to make his case for border security and attack the Democrats while the country watches.

President Trump’s Oval Office address on border security was far stronger than the Democratic response. Pelosi knows that Trump has the better case in this shutdown fight, with law enforcement agencies taking the president’s side and some Democrats beginning to crack.

Pelosi isn’t really worried about security. She’s afraid if Trump gives a State of the Union address while the government is still shut down, his speech will win the shutdown argument and expose Democrats as hypocrites and obstructionists. (For more from the author of “Pelosi Claims Trump Should Postpone SOTU Because of Shutdown — but Here’s What’s Really Going On” please click HERE)

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After Ignoring Angel Moms, Senate Dems Hold Rally for Government Workers Affected by Shutdown

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Senate Democrats held a shutdown rally in front of the Capitol Wednesday morning, holding giant photos of government workers affected by the shutdown.

“Each one of these Americans has a different story about how the shutdown is hurting them and their families,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “As the Trump shutdown drags on, more and more Americans are hurt,” Schumer intoned. He went on to share the story of a federal food safety inspector for the Department of Agriculture who has missed a paycheck and now doesn’t know how he’s going to be able to afford his medical bills.

This rally came a day after a group of Angel Moms (mothers of those killed by illegal immigrants) wielded giant photos of their murdered children at the offices of Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. . .

Angel Mom Sabine Durden, whose son Dominic was killed by an illegal alien in 2012, reacted to Schumer’s rally on Twitter, saying: “Really? They can still hug their children, many of us Angel moms will never b able to do that. I would give up everything to just have my son for 1 hour.”

Asked for comment, Durden told PJ Media: “How incredibly insulting to those who would give up EVERYTHING to have their loved ones back for just a few hours. He’s showing his true colors and they are NOT red/white and blue. This little show is exactly what we talked about when we went to his office and he didn’t make time to even meet us for a minute. Those workers will get their pay, I will NEVER get my son back. Shameful and I wish he would fight this hard for Americans who suffered the ultimate loss because they are not helping to secure our borders .”

(Read more from “After Ignoring Angel Moms, Senate Dems Hold Rally for Government Workers Affected by Shutdown” HERE)

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