You know, if Republicans wanted a border wall, they could have made it happen, easily. But instead, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided that he wanted the filibuster more than a wall that we all know is never going to be built.
Because, see, and McConnell is not copping to this, but he can see the writing on the wall. President Trump is a one-and-done POTUS, if he even gets to the end of one term, and then it’s on to the next, and he’s already dragged House Republicans down and will certainly do so to Senate Republicans in the 2020 cycle.
Ergo, McConnell looked at the House bill that Paul Ryan engineered for Trump before the holidays that would have thrown $5 billion at the border wall we’ll never build and said, meh.
If he really wanted it, he could have maneuvered a vote that would have only needed a simple majority to pass and gotten a spending bill to the president’s desk.
But to do that, he would have had to have blown up the unwritten rule on filibusters, and once you do that, there’s no going back.
The political calculus here: Democrats are going to get the majority back in the Senate in 2020, technically 2021.
Go nuclear with blowing up the filibuster on this stupid border wall that we’re never going to build, and Democrats are never going to respect the filibuster again when they get the majority, which means …
Universal healthcare! Free college for all! Liberal judges! Holy crap, they might undo everything we’ve undone on climate change!
Would you seriously expect McConnell to throw away his ace in the hole for a border wall that, this can’t be stressed enough, is never going to actually be built?
From what we’re seeing, to do anything resembling a border wall would cost in the area of $100 billion, and would require a staggering amount of eminent domain that would no doubt take years to complete.
Then you factor in the required environmental-impact studies, then the standard bit of federal government red tape on bids and contracts, and you’re lucky if you see any dirt moving in 10 years, which is to say, about six years past when the one guy who wants it done will have any say over whether or not we keep tilting at the windmill.
And now Donald Quixote is saying he’ll keep the government shut down for months, maybe years, until he gets his wall.
Somebody needs to tell him that the shutdown doesn’t keep Congress and Bob Mueller from investigating his corrupt ass.
Column by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
