Congressional Democrats fail to override the national emergency
Congressional Democrats are having a banner week, and it’s only Tuesday.
After the collapse of the 2-year, $25 million false Russian collusion debacle over the weekend, House Democrats this afternoon attempted yet again to reverse President Donald J. Trump’s national emergency declaration for our southern border. In the end, despite Democratic control of the House, they fell a few dozen votes short of overriding President Trump’s veto of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) resolution.
“The Democrat-sponsored resolution would terminate vital border security operations,” President Trump explained before signing his veto on March 15. “Congress’s vote to deny the crisis on the southern border is a vote against reality.”
Too few in the media have bothered explaining to the American people why the situation at our southern border is a national emergency in the first place. The reality is that our immigration problem today is vastly different than what it was even just a few years ago.
In fiscal year 2000, for example, most U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions were of single adult males. Of these individuals, 95 percent were repatriated within hours. Today, apprehensions largely consist of family units and minors, many of whom end up remaining in the United States for a long time because of loopholes in our immigration laws.
Smugglers know these loopholes and exploit them to circumvent our safe, lawful, and secure immigration system. As a result, apprehensions of family units have surged by a jaw-dropping 338 percent this year. Daily attempts to cross the southern border illegally have hit a 13-year high, as well.
Here’s what that means: “The surge has maxed out the capacity of existing detention centers” near the U.S.–Mexico border, NBC News reported today. “The Department of Homeland Security is now in negotiations with the Department of Defense to detain and care for the overflow on U.S. military bases.”
In other words, America’s immigration system is so broken that our military bases may have to become temporary shelters while U.S. courts try to keep up with the case backlog. The President’s national emergency declaration tries to limit the damage by allowing access of up to $3.6 billion in military construction funds for border security.
Today’s vote demonstrates yet again that Congress refuses to address the security and humanitarian crisis its own negligence has created. It should at least allow President Trump to use his executive authority to step in and fix it.
President Trump stands by his declaration of a national emergency |
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The Green New Deal goes 0-57 in the Senate
Today, Senate Democrats were given a chance to show Americans exactly where they stand on the far left’s “Green New Deal” proposal.
The Green New Deal isn’t "socialism lite:" It’s a full-scale government takeover meant to reshape every aspect of Americans’ lives from Washington. The blueprint, unveiled by self-described Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), would eliminate fossil fuels completely, upgrade or replace every single building in the United States, and aim to get rid of “polluting” commodities such as cattle and airplanes.
As one of North America’s most prominent labor unions put it: “It is difficult to take this unrealistic manifesto seriously, but the economic and social devastation it would cause if it moves forward is serious and real.”
This afternoon, Senate Democrats were caught between working Americans, who reject socialism, and their far-left base, who embraces it. What they chose to do was remarkable: Rather than register their opinion on the Green New Deal, dozens of Democrats simply voted “present” on the resolution to bring it to the floor for a vote. Three joined their Republican colleagues in rejecting it, resulting in a final tally of 0-57.
Watch: The Green New Deal saga just got even more absurd. |
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| Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian |
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President Donald J. Trump turns toward a crowd of reporters after attending a Senate Republican luncheon as he leaves the U.S. Capitol | March 26, 2019
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A Catastrophic Media Failure
-The Wall Street Journal
“Robert Mueller’s investigation is over, but questions still abound. Not about collusion, Russian interference or obstruction of justice, but about the leading lights of journalism who managed to get the story so wrong, and for so long,” Sean Davis writes. “It wasn’t merely an error here or there. America’s blue-chip journalists botched the entire story, from its birth during the presidential campaign to its final breath Sunday—and they never stopped congratulating themselves for it.”
Watch: President Trump delivers a statement on the Special Counsel report |
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Accountability for a Dossier
-The Wall Street Journal
Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has dispatched the Russia collusion theories, The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes, one has to ask “How did the partisan propaganda known as the Steele dossier become the basis for an unprecedented FBI probe of a presidential campaign, an abuse of law enforcement, and two years of media and political hysteria? . . . Its authors and promoters should be held accountable.” |
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The Media’s Russia ‘Bombshells’ Look Even Worse Now That Mueller Found No Collusion
-The Daily Caller
“Attorney General William Barr told Congress Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller did not find collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, destroying two years of media speculation and bad reporting,” Amber Athey writes. “In light of Mueller concluding his investigation, we’ve compiled a list of some of the worst media screwups in the history of Russia theories.” |
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Mueller’s Conclusions Expose Disgrace of Obama’s Spy Chiefs
-New York Post
“Of all the reputations in tatters now that Robert Mueller has exploded the Russian-collusion fantasy, Obama-era spy chiefs John Brennan and James Clapper stand out,” the New York Post editorial board writes. “These two weren’t average citizens: They spoke with the authority of having headed federal intel operations”—breaking a longstanding precedent of former top law enforcement officials steering clear of politics. |
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Border Hits ‘Breaking Point’ in El Paso, CBP Commissioner Says
-Fox News
“The nation’s top border security official said Wednesday that the border is at its ‘breaking point’ during a visit to Texas, where as many as 1,000 migrants crossed into the U.S. and there are not enough agents to respond,” Louis Casiano reports. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said that “CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis.” |
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Trump’s Golan Decision Is Moral and Strategic
-The Wall Street Journal
The President “tweeted last week that the U.S. will formally recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel. The decision is strategically wise and morally important,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) writes. “Mr. Trump has been one of the most effective American leaders in strengthening the country’s relationship with Israel.”
Watch: President Trump meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu |
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Trump Presents Posthumous Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sergeant Who Died Saving 3 Fellow Soldiers
-Washington Examiner
“President Trump on Wednesday awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor to U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Travis W. Atkins, who heroically sacrificed his life and saved the lives of three fellow soldiers while fighting in Iraq in 2007,” Emily Ward writes. “In his final moments on Earth, Travis did not run,” the President said. “He laid down his life to save the lives of his fellow warriors.” |
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Tax Reform is No 'Sugar High'
-The Wall Street Journal
“The current mantra from opponents of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is that the strong economic growth that followed is the result of a ‘sugar high,’” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) and economist Lawrence Lindsey write. “These arguments reflect political and ideological wishful thinking, not a substantive analysis of what is happening in the economy.”
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The Trump-Russia Collusion Hall of Shame
“The news that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III ‘did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government’ has left a lot of people in Washington with a lot of explaining to do,” Marc Thiessen writes in The Washington Post.
The worst offenders are those who had access to classified intelligence and lied that they had seen actual evidence of collusion, Thiessen explains. “We have long since passed the point where Americans expect objectivity from the press. But we should hold our elected and appointed officials handling sensitive national security issues to a higher standard.”
Click here to read more. |
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| In a visit yesterday to Georgetown, Kentucky, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump toured the world’s largest Toyota manufacturing plant with Gov. Matt Bevin (R-KY). She carried the Trump Administration’s message “that U.S. businesses have to become more prominent in working with the federal government to boost worker training and skills development,” Grace Schneider reports for the Courier-Journal. Toyota answered the call to action and “committed to boosting the skills of 200,000 workers.” |
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“Catherine Toney began February in prison and ended the month with a job at Walmart after White House adviser Jared Kushner called the Arkansas-based retailer on her behalf,” Steven Nelson writes in the Washington Examiner. “Toney, 55, is believed to be the first woman freed by the FIRST STEP Act, which President Trump signed in December.” |
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| “The Mueller report confirms that the Obama administration, without evidence, turned the surveillance powers of the federal government against the presidential campaign of the party out of power,” James Freeman writes in The Wall Street Journal. “It’s time for Mr. Obama, who oddly receives few mentions in stories about his government’s spying on associates of the 2016 Trump campaign, to say what he knew and did not know about the targeting of his party’s opponents.” |
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| “Support for a southern border wall among conservatives has jumped since President Trump came to office, reaching a new high of 99 percent,” Paul Bedard reports in the Washington Examiner. “The survey . . . found that support for Trump’s border wall has increased 85 percent since he became president.” |
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| First Lady Melania Trump “continues to make an impact with her ‘Be Best’ initiative as she made a surprise visit to West Gate Elementary School in Palm Beach County, Florida, to discuss bullying and encourage empathy among students,” Madison Summers reports for Independent Journal Review. |
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