Well, here we are.\u00a0 Christmas is a fond memory and the do-nothing Republican led House is about to become the cannot-do-anything Democrat led House.\u00a0 President Trump is bringing home the troops from the Middle East and will let the partial government shutdown send the bureaucrats home without their big fat paychecks.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll have to read up on the actual constraints of shutting down the government.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing the military will have sufficient funds to fuel jets and feed troops.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what happens to Social Security checks and Medicare bills. \u00a0Both sides are making noises about who will pay the price for turning out the lights in D.C. and filling in the Grand Canyon during the hiatus.\u00a0 Several people on our side of the divide have opined that since most of the civil service are Democrat supporters this will hurt them more than us and will bring them to the bargaining table first.\u00a0 Sounds plausible.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m guessing that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi will be the brokers on their side.\u00a0 And I\u2019m wondering if the \u201cDreamers\u201d will be the carrot that will be waived to get the wall built.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping that they won\u2019t be given any amnesty.\u00a0 It\u2019s just too slippery a slope.\u00a0 Before you know it everyone in the Third World will be identified as a Dreamer.<\/p>\n
More importantly, what will be the path forward to evicting the tens of millions of squatters who currently inhabit the country?\u00a0 At some point it has to be started if the wall is to have any meaning.\u00a0 Enforcing the current immigration laws has to be part of any strategy to secure the border and return authority over the country to the legal residents.\u00a0 And since it is already within existing legislation to do it, no battles in Congress are necessary.\u00a0 All that is needed is the will and control over the bureaucracy and law enforcement agents whose job it is to carry out these existing policies.<\/p>\n
I say this as if it were easy.\u00a0 It\u2019s not.\u00a0 Currently the Justice Department isn\u2019t even under the control of the President.\u00a0 He must first get his Attorney General appointed and the mutinous crew currently running the various agencies fired and out of the buildings.\u00a0 Then he has to find capable honest people to take their places and doing the job.\u00a0 I don\u2019t envy him the task.\u00a0 It\u2019s enormous.<\/p>\n
It should be a very interesting January.\u00a0 A few weeks without their paychecks should focus the minds of a lot of bureaucrats and hopefully make them more receptive to cutting a deal over immigration.\u00a0 This will also be a real test of President Trump.\u00a0 Battling Congress and dealing with his executive branch mutiny, not to mention the Mueller comedy is a titanic assignment.\u00a0 I think he is up to the challenge and I wish him all the luck and success he can get.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just the lingering Christmas food glow but somehow, I\u2019m feeling optimistic.\u00a0 We\u2019ll probably know by Valentine\u2019s Day who wins the game of chicken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, here we are.\u00a0 Christmas is a fond memory and the do-nothing Republican led House is about to become the cannot-do-anything Democrat led House.\u00a0 President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[1164,143,1630,16],"class_list":["post-5683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-trump","tag-build-the-wall","tag-drain-the-swamp","tag-government-shutdown","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\n