To the Editor:
So, I know I am in the minority here in The Villages, and I know the comments received certain to be mean spirited calling me a snowflake, a bleeding heart liberal, and other unkind names but that’s fine. I’m just trying to understand a few things. Here’s my question.
Trump campaigned for nearly two years with the key being his building a wall on the southern border and having Mexico pay for it. He won in November 2016 and took office in January 2017. When he won the White House, the Republicans also won the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
So with his major campaign promise being “Build a Wall,” why wasn’t the money appropriated in the first two years of his presidency when he had 100 percent control of the entire government? Wouldn’t it have been easy to get this done with control of both houses of Congress?
So for some unknown reason, he, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell never pushed for “Wall money” but now that the Democrats took over control of the House it has become a major issue and he has paralyzed the entire government to get something that seems that he could have gotten in the prior two years.
Right before Christmas, the Senate overwhelmingly voted for a Republican package to keep the government open. That bill did include $1.6 Billion for border security. Before it went to the Republican House for what seemed to be certain approval, conservative media critics went nuts and Trump called Paul Ryan and the Republican house leadership to the White House and had them pull the plug on that bill. The bill was defeated, reintroduced with the $5.6 billion for the wall spending and then never brought to the floor by Mitch McConnell.
During the now famous meeting in the Oval Office with Nancy and Chuck, he lost his cool, said he’d be happy to take the mantle on closing the government if it didn’t include $5.6 Billion for the wall and now has closed the government … for over a month.
After stating he’d be happy to own the shutdown, he’s now blaming the democrats for the government closure. His recent “negotiation” said, OK, here’s what I’ll do for you. I’ll give the 1 million DACA people a 3-year temporary extension but you still have to give me my $5.7 Billion for the wall. That’s called negotiation?
Not sure what the Trump supporters think of that, but the conservative media critics have already criticized this for him offering to give asylum to the dreamers.
Let’s be honest, one issue is holding up the entire process and the shutdown of the U.S. government could be avoided if Trump would allow the Senate to take up the House passed bills to fund the government and keep the border issue separate.
If Trump would agree to have the Senate vote on the House bills to open the government then agree with Nancy, Chuck, and Mitch to name 3 House Democrats, 3 House Republicans, 3 Republican Senators and 3 Democratic Senators, and 1 Trump representative who has the guarantee that Trump will agree on a solution on the border issue. Lock them in a room and don’t let them come up without a solution but open the rest of the government for the sake of the 800,000 employees and the many millions of other Americans being hurt by this shutdown.
Pete Davidson
Village of Alhambra