We are beginning to see some fallout from the Republicans’ capitulation to the Democrats on the budget continuing resolution. This continuing resolution includes funding for Planned Parenthood, Sanctuary Cities, and the EPA despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises and it also fails to make good on his promise to build a border wall.
As a result of this “betrayal” Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is pulling its endorsement of Donald Trump. Here is more:
After months of activism efforts to encourage President Trump to honor his campaign promises, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC is regretfully announcing the revocation of the organization’s endorsement of Donald Trump originally issued February 29, 2016.
ALIPAC’s supporters have endorsed, contributed to, volunteered for, and attended events and rallies to help Trump in response to his promises to enforce all existing immigration and border laws while ending Obama’s DACA Amnesty and building a wall on our southern border.
While Trump promised these things, he quickly caved and retreated on budget negotiations with Congress on funding for the wall this week, while continuing Obama’s overtly unconstitutional DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) Amnesty for illegal immigrants! Trump is sending a message that most illegal aliens have nothing to fear from federal law enforcement and that implementation of US law will be based on his personal feelings instead of the Rule of Law. Trump has also issued an executive order setting dangerous refugee resettlement programs he promised to end at 62,000 imported per year, which is the same average Obama brought in during his terms. ALIPAC has also recently discovered Trump administration spokeswoman and Bush family ally Helen Aguirre Ferre promising future amnesty to illegal aliens on KJZZ radio!
“We were so hopeful that Donald Trump would be a man of his word because the campaign promises he made to Americans were the things America needs to do to survive and thrive, but unfortunately, Trump has made it clear he cannot be trusted on his most powerful campaign issue of stopping illegal immigration and amnesty,” declared William Gheen, President of ALIPAC. “Our organization’s supporters have been fighting against illegal immigration and Amnesty for many years, and they say it is time for us to end our endorsement of Trump because close inspection of his actual immigration policies show he is similar to Bush and Obama on Amnesty for illegal immigrants.”
To be fair the blame cannot fall solely on Donald Trump, in fact most of the blame falls on the establishment Republicans because in the end they do not have the stones to fight against the Democrats and the mainstream media because they are too concerned about how they would be portrayed in the media. There is also the reality that in the end the establishment Republicans, when push comes to shove, will always side with the establishment (including the Democrats) over an outsider they feel in encroaching on their power.
But Donald Trump does deserve some blame for this as well, if he wanted to fight he could veto the budget resolution but all indications point to his approval. It is true he is promising to fight again in September when the budget battle resumes but we have heard this type of rhetoric time and time again and in the end we are always left disappointed. Why should we believe it will be different the next time, especially when it is closer to the next election cycle? The Republicans control the White House and both Houses of the Congress and they still cannot pass their agenda, or at least their stated agenda…
I would say this is disappointing but I did not trust Donald Trump from the beginning and I think we might be seeing his true colors beginning to emerge.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
With a so-called Republican in the White House and with a Republican majority in the House and in the Senate it was not supposed to be this way.
We were promised during the election that the Republicans would stop the Federal portion of the funding for Planned Parenthood and that a wall on the Southern border would be funded. As President Donald Trump vowed to stop Federal funding to sanctuary cities, but facing the prospect of a government shutdown the Republicans caved on all these issues and now the Democrats are celebrating victory over the budget negotiations.
Here is more:
Erasing the threat of a disruptive government shutdown, the White House and top lawmakers endorsed a $1.1 trillion spending bill Monday to carry the nation through September, an agreement underscoring that Democrats retain considerable clout in Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency.
Negotiators released the 1,665-page bill after Republicans dropped numerous demands on the environment, Obama-era financial regulations and abortion in marathon sessions over the weekend. The bill is slated for a House vote on Wednesday, with a Senate vote ahead of a Friday midnight deadline.
“We thought we had the upper hand because a government shutdown would be on their shoulders, and we made that clear,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview. “We knew that if we didn’t push things too far we could get a good deal that could make us happy and that’s what happened.
Democrats boasted of money for foreign assistance and cash-strapped Puerto Rico while winning funding for favored programs like transit projects and grants for first responders. They also defied Trump on a bid to punish “sanctuary cities” and on immigration enforcement.
The Republicans are still, laughingly, trying to claim some sort of victory after acquiescing to the Democrats on all of the important issues promising to fight another day but we have heard the promise to fight before only to be let down time and time again.
In the end the Republicans were afraid of how the media would portray them and blame them for a government shutdown even though the party of no, the Democrats, would have been responsible.
This is reminiscent of the government shutdown in 2013 when Republicans were blamed. For all the bluster it did not hurt the Republicans back then and most likely it would not have hurt them in the long run today. But yet they were too timid to stand up for what they supposedly believe in and does anyone really believe that when October rolls around they will finally find the stones to stand up and fight?
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
How about a break from politics for a moment? Covering politics on a daily basis it is easy to lose hope but every once in awhile a story comes along which restores your faith in humanity. Such a story surfaced over the weekend. You probably have seen the video by now but I will share it anyway. When a car was overturned in flood waters several bystanders leaped into action and saved the lives of a baby and a toddler and their Dad.
“In the name of Jesus give them breath” one woman prayed and her prayer was answered. Praise God!
Donald Trump has stated he expects a vote on the latest version of the Obamacare replacement bill sometime this week, however CNN is reporting the bill may be on the verge of collapse. Here is more:
The White House and congressional Republicans are in serious danger of not having enough votes to pass their health care bill.
Several Republicans have come out Monday against the current measure to repeal and replace Obamacare, bringing CNN’s whip count to 21 Republicans — mostly moderates — opposed to the bill with more than a dozen lawmakers still undecided.The Republican Party can only afford to lose 22 votes assuming all of the Republicans are able to attend the vote and no Democrats cross over. As they count votes, GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who was expected to be out for three to four weeks after surgery, is returning Monday from Utah and will back the bill, his office said.
For the last several years there has been talk about civil war within the Republican party and while it is true there are differences within the party that carry over even today between the President and the conservative Republicans with the establishment Republicans all is not well within the Democratic party either.
While the Democrats in Washington are united against Donald Trump there is trouble still brewing with the Democratic voters which spilled into the limelight during the last election. I am talking about the Bernie Sanders supporters who understand that the primary was rigged and their candidate never had a chance to win the nomination, even Bernie Sanders’ eventual endorsement of Hillary Clinton did not help to ameliorate the problem. Many of these voters either stayed home or voted for Gary Johnson and time has not healed this wound.
Sunday, April 30th open thread: ‘One Hundred Years’
Here is the open thread for Sunday, April 30th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
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You have probably noticed how I feel about the artificial 100 days media deadline in a couple of my posts but playing, somewhat, on that theme I give you The Cure performing “One Hundred Years” live in 1984.
frui diem
Bill Maher on Barack Obama’s Wall Street speech: ‘It kind of looks like, when he’s on our team, we’re OK with it’
It has been kind of fun listening to liberals defend Barack Obama’s decision to accept $400,000 to deliver a speech to Wall Street after eight years of bashing Wall Street. Lizzy Warren and Bernie Sanders are two exceptions, they have come out questioning this move while the rank and file liberal voters go to extremes to defend it.
A perfect example of this occurred on Real Time with Bill Maher: While two of the liberals on the panel defended Barack Obama’s speech Bill Maher, to his credit, called them out on their hypocrisy. Here is what he had to say:
“It kind of looks like, when he’s on our team, we’re OK with it. … So isn’t the best thing to do, take your $10 million book deal? Can’t you live on that?”
Maher said, “[T]he current president is trying to undo all of his Wall Street regulations, and then he goes to Wall Street…isn’t that what sort of cost Hillary the election?”
He later added, “It kind of looks like, when he’s on our team, we’re OK with it.” Maher further argued, “[Y]ou could say that when he — when a guy is president, he’s looking ahead to that $400,000 payday, and he’s not going to get it if, while he’s president, he’s going to do something that’s going to piss them off. So isn’t the best thing to do, take your $10 million book deal? Can’t you live on that?”
“Take your $10 million book deal. Can’t you live on that?” Boom! Didn’t Barack Obama once claim that at some point a person has earned enough money? How much does the former President need?
Of course the panelists did not agree with Bill Maher and went to great lengths to defend their, and Barack Obama’s, hypocrisy, including defending capitalism and the free market, but Bill Maher was having none of it.
I cannot link directly to the video here but you can watch it by following the link I provided above, I find it quite entertaining to say the least.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Donald Trump reverses Barack Obama’s drilling ban
With all of the focus surrounding Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office–an artificial media deadline I find silly and overblown–this story slipped under the radar yesterday. Donald Trump signed an Executive Order which reverses some of the drilling bans Barack Obama put in place in his last days in office.
Here is more:
It looked like the Republican-led house reached a possible breakthrough on the faux-Obamacare repeal legislation when Mark Meadows and Tom MacArthur reached an agreement and the Freedom Caucus endorsed the latest legislation. But it was not to be and today Paul Ryan was forced to once again withdraw the legislation in shame.
Donald Trump desperately wanted this legislation to pass so he could sign it during his first 100 days. Personally I find this artificial 100 days deadline to be silly. Sure it is okay to look back a few months into a new Presidency to see how he is doing and what he has accomplished but this administration has put too much emphasis on it. Part of that is due to Donald Trump’s own feeling of self-worthiness and his longing to show his nay-sayers that they were wrong…
But speed is not what is important here (and it should be remembered the Founders set up the Congress to purposely ensure legislation was not rushed) what is important is getting the legislation right.
If the Republicans were interested in speedily repealing Obamacare they had almost eight years to prepare legislation which could be signed on day one and they did not because they had no plan. I think part of the reason they had no plan is because they assumed Hillary Clinton would be the next President, they passed dozens of outright repeal bills when there was no chance of repeal but when the opportunity knocked at the door the Republicans were left with nothing to offer the President. If we are to judge anybody on the first 100 days it should be the Congress and they deserve an “F.”
Now that this artificial deadline is going to pass without any Obamacare repeal legislation it is time for the Republicans to slow down, start again from scratch, and get the legislation right.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
The Freedom Caucus endorses new Obamacare replacement bill
After successfully shutting down the last attempt by the establishment Republicans to pass an Obamacare replacement bill the Freedom Caucus has been in negotiations with Rep. Tom MacArthur (a centrist Republican) and they have come to an agreement. Today the Freedom Caucus has endorsed the new replacement bill after holding out long enough to get an amendment added to the bill they were fighting for in the first go round.
Here is more:
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