Great tweets by Michael Tracey, one of the few honest leftist journalists out there.
(01-19-2019 12:38 AM)MrLemon Wrote: There is a case to be made for declaring an emergency and then re-openign the government.
With the government operations closed, like TSA and whatnot, there is a potential however small that a plane could crash or something that would kill a bunch of folk. Can you imagine the optics of that? This whole thing messes with people's lives. Trump as President has a pretty strong duty to protect the nation. He can't let the idiots like Pelosi put fucking people's lives at risk just to make political points. It's getting beyond normal negotiation.
Sure some people want the government closed, but that may not be the game he wants to play right now.
Only non-essential employees are furloughed, TSA and the like are still running. I know they're running all these stories about TSA workers calling in sick and generally being terrible but they're still working, it's not open season at the airports.
The real story here is, if the media wasn't hyping it up, I imagine 99% of people wouldn't even know the government was "shut down". Basically just furloughed government employees or their family members.
Also, the media isn't reporting on how much the pressure is going to get to the Dems, just like the pressure the tariffs put on China. it was all "Trump's tariffs are going to tank the economy", all the time; when in reality you just need to stick with it, hold the course, and can win in the long run - China is seriously hurting now.
Here's what's more exciting though - it sounds like there's a solid avenue to pursue that doesn't require the National Emergencies Act. There's no worries about funding issues and no way congress can stop him, under
Public Law 85-804 (credit to FTN which broke down the different wall-funding scenarios in an hour long podcast if anyone's interested,
https://therightstuff.biz/2019/01/16/ftn...ositionism ), quote:
Quote:Public Law No. 85-804, codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1431-35 (Supp. IV 1998), grants to the President the authority to authorize any agency which exercises functions in connection with the national defense to enter into contracts or into amendments or modifications of contracts, and to make advance payments, without regard to other applicable legal provisions whenever such action would facilitate the national defense.
The law wasn't cited for years until Obama used it to idemnify.... USAID workers in Africa at risk of contracting ebola (??? -
link to that story). Feels like a wall has way more "national defence" relevance than that...
The way they broke it down on the podcast, and they seem fairly confident in doing all their research and checking the other laws and codes it refers to, that this seems incredibly solid. All the Trump Administration has to do is give the armed services commitees in the house & senate 60 days notice that it's being invoked; and that's it. There used to be congressional oversight as part of that law but it was stripped out before the start of the Gulf War so congress can't stop it. No way for Pelosi to stop it.
And apparently there's no worries about tapping into a limited supply of funds like the National Emergencies Act would, this law literally transfers the "purse strings" power from the legislative to the executive branch. The Trump Administration can enter into contracts with a firm or multiple firms to build the full 25 billion dollar wall, fuck 'em all. Throw one on the northern border too while you're at it, the way my country's going you'll need it in a few years.
The law sounds powerful, almost too good to be true, but apparently it's solid. ACLU would surely launch a lawsuit immediately but while the 9th Circuit will likely do their shenanigans, by the letter of the law this should prevail, he has the authority. This massive law has been on the books for years and nobody's thought about it or worried about it because they've all been playing the same game, every president's been part of the Washington DC uniparty and nobody's ever had the balls to use it - Trump can be that guy who finally does.
But yeah, if anyone else is interested in 3 different scenarios where Trump can get the wall without needing congress, I'd check out the podcast I linked to.