Posted on 03/24/2018 3:26:05 PM PDT by zencycler
President Donald Trump briefly threatened to veto a giant spending bill on Friday and then reluctantly signed it to keep the military funded.
The lack of funding for a border wall with Mexico is likely one of the president’s biggest frustrations. Trump mentioned the wall when he threatened to veto the bill. The $1.3 trillion budget includes just $1.6 billion for wall construction along the southern border, far short of the $25 billion needed to accomplish Trump’s signature campaign promise.
To make matters worse, the spending bill specifically prohibits Trump from building the kind of wall he wants. The president nevertheless celebrated the progress and pointed out that construction can begin immediately.
But Trump also dropped an eyebrow-raising hint that he could take an unprecedented option and build the wall using the enormous military budget.
“I want to address the situation on border security, which I call national defense,” Trump said. “I call it stopping drugs from pouring across our border. And I call it illegal immigration. It’s all of those things. But national defense is a very important two words. Because by having a strong border system, including a wall, we are in a position, militarily, that is very advantageous.”
For the first time, Trump underlined the significance of the barrier as a military structure and a matter of national defense. Up to now, the president promoted the wall as a way to curtail illegal immigration and stop the deadly flood of illicit drugs. The introduction of the wall’s military function is significant, especially in terms of funding it.
Roughly half of the spending bill is dedicated to the military for a total of over $654 billion allotted to the Pentagon’s base budget and overseas counterinsurgency operations. That’s enough to build the wall 26 times.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
National Defense trumps (no pun intended) all.
Have HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ENLISTEES do their training at the border before fanning out into the several branches.
Readiness problem SOLVED.
Noooo! What about all the FReepers who threw in the Trump towel yesterday?
No budget is just a violation of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. Unfortunate.
Appropriations bills were passed which authorized the obligation and subsequent expenditure.
Trump probably realizes he’s better start throwing some bones to conservatives real quick.
The Never Trumpers?
Screw them
They all can cry over their pictures of Ted Cruz
Impeachment is extremely unlikely before the next congress takes over in January 2019. And if GOP prevails in 2018 election, fuggetaboutit.
True. Appropriation law tells you what you can do with funds. Not what you cannot.
The Never Trump is strong with Zhang Fei.
One of the most memorable movies of all time !
Can’t remember - was he still Lew Alcindor back then ?
Think he postdated Cassius Clay. . .
NATIONAL DEFENSE WALL is LEGAL.
F Congress. F Justice.
Constitution is supreme.
It’s amazing how people can interpret the same data and come to opposite conclusions. One would thing that there may be an ax to grind here.
POTUS will be impeached magically without any criminal behavior. POTUS has already fulfilled 64% of his promises but he has done nothing. Job creation is ticking right along at an unprecedented pace. Hispanic & Black Americans have job numbers that beat all records. Regulatory burdens are being lifted. Tax reform has been enacted, companies are returning to America. Factories are reopening. But POTUS is a disaster.
I tire of the chicken littles and the false prophets of doom. Their litany is repetative & overused. We have a chance to make America Great again and it is because of Donald Trump. It’s easy to tear down & to destroy, to backbite and snark but much harder to stand against the establishment and win. DJT has done a lot of winning for America & the American people. Not for the Left, Not For the Globalists so they will try and defeat him by lying & by demoralizing his supporters.
Keep trying I don’t think you are getting anywhere.
Except when there is a mater of National Security. Then the rules are set aide.
Nope, da man be in charge. Democrat chaos all around him, but DJT remains da man, a concept the pssyfied Democrats and metro sexual faggotry cannot grasp.
Great thought!
They have tried to impeach him already. The motions don’t get to the floor. Barack Obama played fast & loose with Government money and no one said boo. If POTUS does this he will have figured out how to do it legally before he signed the act. Mulvahny would be the guy to have made the plan.
It is indisputably within his authority as CINC to spend Defense dollars to build a wall.
All he has to do is cite National Defense.
And watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The $1.3 trillion budget includes just $1.6 billion for wall construction along the
southern border, far short of the $25 billion needed to accomplish Trump’s signature
campaign promise.
You are thinking on my line of thought.
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