(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)With the partial government shutdown now in its fifth week, some members of the Democratic Party are starting to see the light. They’re now demanding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) cut a deal with President Donald Trump that will provide enough funding for an impenetrable wall along the porous U.S.-Mexico border and reopen the government.
In a letter obtained by Politico, a group of moderate Democrats led by Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia is pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to come to the negotiating table and find a deal with President Donald Trump which will reopen the government, even if that means forking over the $5.7 billion Trump needs to finish the wall between the U.S and Mexico.
“We know that you share our value that effective governing should not result in winners and losers, but that our job as legislators is to do the most good for the most people,” reads the letter. “Across the country, hundreds of thousands of government workers are living in fear of what will happen if they go another week without a paycheck.”
“We have heard these stories in our districts and have seen the impact this partial government shutdown is having on our vital federal employees including law enforcement and Coast Guard personnel, contractors, small businesses, and countless others,” it goes on. “Small businesses are unable to secure loans and other much-needed resources, costing them jobs and growth. Without inspectors and full staffing levels at our nation’s most critical agencies, parents have asked us about the safety of the food their children eat and the water they drink.”
“The government shutdown has already cost our economy $3.2 billion according to S&P Global Ratings, including $200 million a day in delayed wages. The shutdown is expected to cost an additional $1.2 billion for every week that our federal agencies are not fully operational,” the letter explains. “We understand that this shutdown was not caused by the 116th Congress, but it is our job to fix it.”
“We promised our constituents that we would seek bipartisan solutions, and we feel that this proposal would gain bipartisan support and allow a transparent process to evaluate the true needs of border security and provide much-needed reform to our immigration process,” it adds.
Even as Nancy Pelosi stalls, seemingly content to let the shutdown go on forever, President Donald Trump has done his part to reach a compromise. Over the weekend, he offered extensions on protections for DACA recipients and immigrants under Temporary Protected Status in exchange for border wall funding:
President Donald Trump’s latest effort to break a stalemate over border wall funding and end a partial government shutdown includes provisions that would seek to stop the formation of Central American migrant caravans.
Trump is currently engaged in a high-stakes fight with Democratic lawmakers over funding for a proposed wall along the U.S. southern border. The two sides remain largely where they were when the shutdown began shortly before Christmas with Democrats saying they will provide only $1.6 billion in border wall funding and President Donald Trump demanding $5.7 billion.
The president sought to break the 32-day logjam and stave off another missed paycheck for federal workers Saturday by offering Democrats the chance to extend the DACA program for an additional three years and the temporary protected status program. In exchange, the White House maintains its ask for $5.7 billion in funding, an increase in humanitarian aid and changes to the U.S. asylum law. [Source: The Daily Caller]
It only seems logical for the Democrats to make this compromise, which provides protection for DACA recipients in exchange for border wall funding. Even Dreamers are urging Democrats to take the deal, which would provide them with security moving forward.
Rep. Collin Peterson, a centrist Democrat from a red Minnesota district, noted as much, saying, “Give Trump the money. I’d give him the whole thing…and put strings on it so you make sure he puts the wall where it needs to be. Why are we fighting over this? We’re going to build that wall anyway, at some time.”
Indeed, Trump is going to get his wall. He is the master negotiator. Democrats have supported border security in the past — they only seem to be against it now that Trump’s in charge. It only makes sense to allocate $5.7 billion for the border wall. Frankly, that’s much less than it costs our economy to support the hoards of illegal immigrants flooding into the country.
It’s time for Pelosi to come to the table and make a deal with Trump. Even some members of her own party think so.
