Republicans fight to save funding for border wall

Townhall Media/Julio Rosas

One of Joe Biden’s first moves upon taking office was to order a halt to construction on the southern border wall. That move was only one of many of Biden’s efforts to erase anything and everything accomplished by Donald Trump and obliterate the legacy of the 45th President. He’s run into some legal issues in this regard following a series of court challenges, but Biden has thus far been able to mostly shut down construction efforts even as the border crisis he created continues to spiral out of control. Now, however, Democrats in Congress are looking at a more permanent blockade. In the next spending bill, they have included a provision to “redirect” $1.9 billion in remaining funds for wall construction. This has led a group of five Republican senators to pen a letter promising not to vote for the funding bill if the money for the border wall isn’t left in place and they are urging their colleagues to make the same pledge. (The Hill)

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Senate Republicans are struggling to save funding for construction of former President Trump’s long-sought wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, as Democrats press forward with plans to rescind nearly $2 billion in funding for his signature project.

Republicans in the upper chamber are pushing for the funding already allocated toward the barrier’s construction to be used to help continue progress on the project, a stalled effort that would likely take years longer and more money to complete.

Earlier this month, a group of Republicans — GOP Sens. Mike Braun (Ind.), Ted Cruz (Texas), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) — vowed in a letter not to back the annual appropriations legislation to fund the government if dollars are not set aside for the wall, and implored their colleagues to do the same.

Before anyone gets their hopes up too high, that letter from the five Republican senators hasn’t attracted a lot of support from the rest of their caucus. Despite most of the Republicans still being in favor of finishing the wall, some of them have already come out and said that they’re not going to die on that hill and kill the entire bill just to keep the wall funding.

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Another bit of spin I wanted to point out to you is found in the linked article from the Hill and in many other outlets covering this story. They use the phrase “former President Trump’s long-sought wall.” Trump’s name is invoked no less than five times in the course of the article.

I don’t know how to break it to all of these people, but Donald Trump has been out of office for nearly a year at this point. There is, as yet, no solid indication that he plans to seek another term or any conclusive evidence that he would succeed if he did. In short, this is not “Trump’s border wall.”

The reality is that Donald Trump may not be working out of the Oval Office anymore, but we still need to secure the border. We’re mired down in a spiraling border crisis of Joe Biden’s making. This isn’t “Trump’s wall.” It’s America’s wall, and we need it now more than ever.

Unfortunately, we may be forced to wait quite a while longer, creating even more of a mess on the border that will eventually have to be cleaned up. Even if the GOP took back the majority in both chambers next year they wouldn’t be able to restore the funding. Joe Biden would just veto it if they tried. But if they manage to retake both the White House and Congress in 2024, we definitely need to have a President who will support completing the project.

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David Strom 5:20 PM | May 01, 2024
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