Trump finally pulled the trigger to divert military funds to make a down payment on his White Whale Wall. The Fake News reported that he’d make Mexico pay when he very clearly said he’d make the Military pay. You remember that, right?
I could easily use this post to complain about what an obsessive “Moby Dick Move” this is. However, I’ll let the fact that I actually published that phrase to hopefully convey my absolute disgust that our military has been dragged into Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. I’ll concentrate instead on the politics that are now unfortunately involved.
In summary, Trump will use previously discussed national emergency powers to divert $3.6B from 127 separate military construction projects to help pay for the useless wall that he promised his supporters. These military projects all went through a rigorous appropriations process and were included in budgets that were approved by Congress and signed by the President. Subsequently, the President unilaterally decided to just ignore that process. While the Constitution clearly gives Congress the power of the purse, this Congress seems content to let Captain Ahab do whatever he wants. None of the defunded projects are fluff; many are absolutely critical; some address risk-of-life issues for military personnel. Politico published a summary list for those interested. Trump & Company couldn’t care less.
Almost 60% of the defunded projects in the U.S. impact House districts currently held by Democrats. The only surprise there is that it’s only 60%. Of particular note, though, is that $332M of the money comes from eight states that are at least somewhat in-play in 2020. In order of impact, these states are New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, and Colorado.
Republicans are now all clamoring for Congress to approve backfill funding for all of the defunded projects and are already trying to blame Democrats if they don’t agree.
Hell, no.
While the defunded projects certainly need to go forward, there is zero reason for Democrats to cave on any simple re-funding prior to the election. There will hopefully be a lot of airtime in the above states devoted to Trump’s raid on funding meant for soldiers stationed in those states. The diversion of approved military funds to pay for a wall that Congress explicitly did NOT fund is simply an indefensible position. Democrats should constantly hammer Trump on this until November 2020.
In the meantime, Democrats could point out some simple alternatives that Republicans could pursue if they want to immediately restore the military’s funding:
- Disapprove the national emergency. Because the authors of the National Emergencies Act were idiots, it takes a 2/3 majority in both the House and Senate to override a President’s emergency declaration. I’m pretty sure that Democrats can deliver every single one of their votes for an override. That leaves this entirely in the hands of Republican Congressional leadership.
- Raise corporate taxes. Republicans are big fans of offsets to fund things they don’t like. Democrats should suggest that Republicans eat this one with the gravy they previously passed out to their friends. For simplicity, if we just raise the corporate rate by one percent, that will more than cover the $3.6B.
- Divert the money from Republican pet projects. This should be easy. The last budget had numerous carve-outs to win support from various Republicans. If they eliminate enough of the pet projects, they can restore the military projects.
Will any of the above happen? Of course not. But Democrats need to constantly remind voters that this is purely a Republican problem that can be solved either by the Republicans currently in office or by the Democrats that replace them in 2020.
As a fun aside, while Kentucky isn’t in play in the Presidential election, Trump certainly didn’t do Mitch McConnell any favors in his Senate race. One of the defunded projects is a $64M middle school at Fort Campbell. I seriously cannot wait to see what will hopefully be numerous responses from Amy McGrath – McConnell’s likely Democratic opponent. A retired Marine combat pilot should have a field day painting McConnell as a puppet of Trump. While neither McConnell nor Trump has served a day in uniform, both are eagerly taking money away from the children of soldiers in the non-border state of Kentucky… to pay for a border wall we don’t need… while many of the Kentucky children have a Army parent deployed to an overseas war zone.
Wow. Fry the chicken and call me Ishmael.