This week’s Whiner of the Week is none other than Chuck Schumer. At this time, January 11th, 2019, parts of the Federal government are in a partial shutdown condition because of a lack of the House, the Senate, and the President from coming to terms on a budget.
President Trump in his campaign speeches promised to build a wall for $25 billion dollars and have Mexico pay for this wall. The $25B was an extraordinary amount as there is probably no need to stretch a wall from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, a total of 1,954 miles. And having Mexico pay for it was probably not going to happen.
The Democrats have jumped on these two talking points with glee. After all the President said he would, right?
Trump’s campaign promises to have Mexico pay for the wall, were really just campaign promises. How many politicians have made campaign promises that they did not keep? Surely the Democrats understand that what you promise in a campaign does not mean you need to keep your word… Trump is new this political game. He is still a Greenhorn.
Since then Trump has reduced the request to $5.6B dollars while the Dems are only offering $1.3B in “Border Security,” but not to be used on the fence or wall. $5.6B will only build about 200 miles of border. But the idea is to place this new wall in strategic locations to buttress the existing barriers.
Some have called the non-walled high-tech border security just “bells and whistles”. Border Patrol would still have to respond to alarms and some have said it would be easy to keep the Boarder Patrol occupied with false alarms. While one can joke about lasers zapping moving objects coming over the fence, no one is talking about this kind of high-tech security.
Trump is up against Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, both highly seasoned and partisan politicians each with a long history of “kicking the can down the road”. They are ready to wait it out and have nothing to lose. They are content with the Status Quo. Nancy has plans to step down and Chuck is from a non-border state that benefits greatly from under-the-table labor. They both have voted for border walls in the past and understand that in politics, being a Hypocrite is not always held against you.
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi, now Speaker of the House, and representing California’s 12th district. The 12th district, geographically, is the City of San Francisco. San Francisco, basically her district, was called out by the United Nations on Oct 18th 2018, and Oakland, as the only two cities in the US that are part of a “global scandal”, that contain homeless encampments that are “cruel and inhumane”.
San Francisco is a Sanctuary City that provides a number of measures to prevent illegal aliens from being reported to Immigration. This allows them to compete with the homeless for housing, in effect, enlarging the homeless population. California’s state government has stated that California needs 3.5 million new housing units. Given the shortage of housing rents and costs are near the highest in the nation. More immigrants means more money for housing. If Nancy’s district is the one of the two worst areas in the US for taking care of people, how can she state, “Come one, come all, we shall shelter you from all of the cruelty in this world?”.
Chuck Schumer – A Weekly Whiner
Chuck Schumer, Senator from the State of New York and minority leader of the Senate, has also refused to budge. Considerations upon solving DACA and reopening the government have not swayed him in his resolve against Trump. Trump has been a controversial figure on the New York scene for years and support for Trump would cause him to lose tremendous face. Recently Leticia James was elected to Attorney General for NYC. She is part of the hard left attempting to get rid of Trump thru any means. Her campaign video is brutal. This is what Trump faces every hour, of every day.
New York is not a border state, but it does receive an large influx of visitors thru its airports. Travelers coming thru have been checked at their point of departures, and they are checked again at the airport by Pass Port Screeners. The southern border states have no luxury of congenial official airport Pass Port Screeners along the border. If we are to have open borders, do we still need Pass Port Screeners?
With the government shutdown numerous agencies are being shutdown. TSA, which provides security for Airports, including New York’s La Guardia, have been reportedly experiencing a Blue Fever which is a large number of employees calling in sick, because of lack of pay.
New York City, in 2007, was estimated to have over a half a million illegal and undocumented immigrants. 40 percent of these immigrants came from south of the US/Mexican border. For example, 54% of the dishwashers in New York City are said to be illegally in the country. The numbers, 12 years later, must be higher now. Half of the carpenters also have the same status. If they were all to pick up and leave, wages would have to rise a substantial amount in order to entice locals to pick up the slack. And it is generally thought locals might not work as hard either.
Chuck Schumer has tremendous pressure from his constituents to keep things the way they are. New York is already an expensive place to eat out and New Yorkers love their restaurants. They also love their Nannies, Maids, Day Laborers, and Landscapers. Cost is one factor in a number of cases. No Social Security tax, no Medicare tax, no health insurance, and no minimum wage. Working conditions in a number of the jobs are more than the average American would tolerate. Chuck is reluctant to rock this boat.
Trumps campaign promise of a $25B Wall has now shrunk to a $5.6B fence constructed in strategic places, buttressing the existing fence or barrier. You don’t hear Chuck arguing for tearing down existing portions of the “Immoral” fence. Once again, whatever is the “Status Quo” is just fine.
Trump has also not done well in his presentation of the need. On January 4th he held a press conference where he almost looked presidential. ICE and Border Security were present and stated a fence was necessary and would help.
Some have questioned how a more secure fence would help. It certainly did not stop the recent caravans coming to seek asylum. The caravans are in a sense an answer to safety, as making your way across the desert to border entry points that have sparse patrols with minimal fencing. A desert crossing can be unsafe for men and women. Because of the ease of entry at the points represents what might be termed an, “Attractive Nuisance“, which is a legal term that states maybe it’s too easy to cross the border. In 2014 National Geographic published an article about the “Busy Pipeline” of illegals . This article describes the “Rape Trees” where migrant girls are raped and killed by their coyotes. It also describes a Rancher, Hollek, who says, “He won’t eat hog caught south of Highway 285 because the chances of it having fed on a dead human being are too high”.
Trump needs to be a kinder and gentler president. He still thinks he is in campaign mode, rather than executive mode. He might find that if he were kinder, and did more explaining, he might make more headway.
If Barack Obama had wanted $5B for an additional 200 miles of partial fence, buttressing strategic areas of the borders, both Chuck and Nancy would most likely have bent over backwards to help. They might have even helped Barack legalize the DACA issue.
Some of the non leadership Democrats, Jackie Speier’s for instance, have stated they would trade DACA for the border wall money. But the Democratic leadership team of Chuck and Nancy, and the far left of the party are not ready to budge.
Since the Democrats have taken over the house just recently, it looks like they are not in the mood to deal. We may be headed for a news heavy next two years. Trump needs to find a way to make Nancy and Chuck look like winners.
The Immigration problem is not going to go away. With free healthcare for all being discussed, a new magnet to America will soon be added as folks with health issues cross the border. It can be expensive to provide full healthcare for anyone who finds themselves within the US border but some think the US is ready for it.
But on the other hand, America needs the appropriate workers to succeed in the global marketplace. Our educational system does not produce the type of workers we need, hence, we look offshore for legal immigration thru the H1B visa program. Trump has talked about a path to citizenship for them.
Famous Quotes:
Sen. Chuck Schumer, 2009: “People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who enter the U.S. legally. The American people will never accept immigration reform unless they truly believe that their government is committed to ending future illegal immigration.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2008: “We do need to address the issue of immigration and the challenge we have of undocumented people in our country. We certainly do not want any more coming in.”
Barack Obama, 2005: “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the U.S. undocumented, undetected, unchecked, circumventing the people who are waiting patiently, diligently, lawfully to become immigrants in this country.”
Barack Obama, 2014: This short video shows him describing a “Border Crisis” regarding children being brought in. One must admit, he does look more presidential than Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton, 2014: “I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in and I do think you have to control your borders.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, 2007: “I don’t know why we need millions of people to be coming into the country who will work for lower wages than American workers and drives wages down even lower than they are right now.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “The only things that have changed between then and now are the political winds, and of course, the occupant of the White House. So this is no newfound principled objection; it’s just political spite. A partisan tantrum being prioritized over the public interest.”
The last quote, when viewing the quotes preceding it, sums things up nicely.
German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, 2018-Nov-21 at a Konrad Adenauer Foundation event in Berlin: “Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty”. She also stated, “Ceding power to a superstate is a better form of patriotism.” For Germany this is the EU, for America, the UN.