On today’s BradCast: Desi and I are back after the holidays — and to end the shutdown! You’re welcome! There’s a LOT of news to catch up on as Democrats officially settle in to their new U.S. House majority with the federal government remaining partially closed thanks to Donald Trump’s new demand for $5 billion in tax-payer money (not Mexico’s) to fund his southern border wall. [Audio link to show follows below.]
The federal shutdown is beginning to cause very real and negative effects across the country, particularly at our national parks and monuments and, if it goes on much longer, in food assistance to the poor. Oddly enough, National Park Service rangers are still deployed to one historic site in D.C. — the one that happens to be inside the Old Post Office building….which is now the Trump International Hotel.
Meanwhile, Trump has announced plans for a prime-time speech to the nation on Tuesday night to address his pretend “National Security crisis on our Southern Border” and is requesting airtime for it from the national TV networks. However, while Trump is standing firm on his demand for some $5 billion to fund his border wall, (and Dems are standing equally firm in not giving it to him), his very own proposed budget plan for 2019 [PDF], as given to Congress last year, requested just $1.6 billion for the wall. (Seriously, open on the PDF and click on the section for the Dept. of Homeland Security, where it details the Admin’s 2019 request: “Critical investments include $1.6 billion for construction of the border wall.”) That’s almost exactly what the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate voted to give him last year, which Trump agreed to…before criticism from Righwing media led him to increase his demand two weeks ago.
So, it’s left to me, I guess, to explain how Democrats should give Trump exactly what he asked for in that proposal last year — as written by Office of Management and Budget chief and now Trump’s Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney — in order to solve the very real shutdown crisis.
Also, among the many other stories covered on today’s show:
- For the first time in her career as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, recuperating from cancer surgery, was not present for oral argument at SCOTUS on Monday.
- In better SCOTUS news, the Court rejected ExxonMobil’s plea to save them from an investigation by the Massachusetts Attorney General into the oil giant’s decades of apparent fraud regarding climate change.
- Over the weekend, newly-minted progressive Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for restoring the 70 percent income tax rate for the lucky few earning more than $10 million a year, in order to help fund a ‘Green New Deal’ to save the planet. Republicans, predictably, are both freaking out and lying about her proposal.
And, finally, we open up the phone lines to callers on all of the above and much more, including what listeners hope to see Democrats take on as their top priorities in the new Congress…
What can the Dem controlled House do?
You forget your civics…
All bills that finance the government must start in the House of Representatives. The senate can augment the House’s bills but they are initially structured in the House.
That’s what they can do. They can include or exclude whatever they want. If they don’t want to finance a wall, they can exclude it. Trump can’t do anything but propose ideas and sign/veto bills.
Get ’em where it hurts Republicans most, in the pocketbook.
As a Taxpayer First Class, the only thing I would give Trump is what he deserves: an orange jumpsuit to match his skin tone and a secure room with concrete walls and a steel slat door.