The Democrats Gave an Inch, President Trump Took It, Will Sign the Bill, AND Declare a National Emergency to Build the Wall

PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS A DEAL AND FUNDING FOR SOME WALL -- BUT IN BREAKING NEWS, HE WILL DECLARE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY. Together, that is really good news. • • • WORDS OF POLITICAL WISDOM FROM PRESIDENT REAGAN. President Ronald Reagan’s autobiography, “An American Life,” published in 1990, about taking office as the governor of California in 1967 has this to say about political negotiating : "There were still some hard feelings toward me left over from the campaign, when I’d gone out of my way to say I thought the professional politicians in Sacramento and I were natural enemies : My loyalty was to the people, not the political establishment, and I had said so fairly pointedly. Although that sentiment never changed, I realized after a while that to accomplish what I wanted to do swimming upstream against a current of opposition legislators, I’d have to do some negotiating with them....Although I may have been a former actor, I knew something about negotiating. As president of the Screen Actors Guild, I’d matched wits with some of the shrewdest negotiators on the planet -- people like Jack Warner, Y. Frank Freeman, the president of Paramount, MGM’s Louis B. Mayer, and the heads of the other studios. When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn’t like it. 'Compromise' was a dirty word to them and they wouldn’t face the fact that we couldn’t get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything. I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933 : 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.' If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that’s what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it." • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE GOP TEAM GOT PERHAPS HALF OF WHAT THEY ASKED FOR. The Washington Times summarized the deal on Tuesday : "President Trump may not have been happy with it, but congressional Republicans said he actually made out pretty well in the new spending deal emerging on Capitol Hill, with at least a 'down payment' on his border wall and expansive powers to detain immigrants caught living illegally in the US interior. Democrats, meanwhile, crowed over limiting him to far less wall money than he wants, though they admitted they were unable to limit the number of detention beds, caving on an 11th-hour demand that had temporarily upended talks. Cowed by fears of another partial government shutdown, all sides said they hoped Mr. Trump would accept the bargain and sign it into law this week." • BlabberBuzz quoted the New York Post on the bill's contents - "On Wednesday FOX News announced Democrats slipped a 'poison pill' into the deal that will prevent the 55 miles of wall from being built. But the agreement is...worse than what is being reported....Border 'Wall' construction is only allowed in the Rio Grande Valley Sector....Funds can only be used to make steel bollard design...no concrete wall, no prototypes. Same thing as what Bush and Obama built...just a little bit taller....The bill secures more than $3.1 billion in foreign health services, more than twice for the wall....Secretary of DHS cannot increase border crossing fees....No funding for additional enforcement and removal field personnel – that means no more ICE agents to deport people already in the country....Expands the Alternatives to Detention program from 82,000 to 100,000...so instead of housing family units at the border -- they get moved into the interior where they almost always stay in the country permanently....Provides $40 million for additional ICE staffing dedicated to overall ATD case management, particularly for asylum seekers...so no new ICE agents, but money to ICE to help illegal aliens settle in a non-detention center in the country....$3.4 billion in refugee assistance -- $74 million more than last year $4.4 billion in international disaster assistance -- $100 million more than last year....Does not eliminate any foundations that Trump wanted to get rid of including: The Asia Foundation, the US African Development Foundation, the Inter-American Foundation, and the US Trade and Development Agency..." • Gateway Pundit reports that : "A group of conservative House Republicans called on President Trump to flex his executive power to get the funds to build a wall on the southern border because a compromise deal fails to provide enough funding for the barrier. In a letter released to The Hill, members of the House Freedom Caucus -- Representatives Mark Meadows, Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan -- say the agreement worked out by congressional negotiators puts the nation at risk. 'Thank you for your leadership efforts to protect our border. The conference committee deal is bad,' the letter says. 'It will not secure the border and will allow criminally violent aliens to be released into our country. And, in fact, there may be additional problems with the proposed ‘deal.'....The members of the caucus urged Trump to declare a national emergency, a move that would allow him to use emergency military construction authority and “provide support for the counter drug activities or activities to counter transnational organized crime” by erecting the barrier." • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said : “It’s not everything the President hoped to get, but I think it’s a good step in the right direction. I hope he’ll decide to sign it.” • The President got $1.375 billion to pay for 55 miles of new bollard-style fencing, which the Border Patrol says is the most modern and preferred style of wall. And, GOP Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee noted : “I do know that the President has significant authority already given to him by Congress, and money, to build various kinds of physical barriers,” adding that a defense spending bill Congress passed several months ago contains $881 million specifically earmarked to build fences in drug-smuggling corridors. Senator Alexander said : “Now, some of that money’s already committed -- a lot of it’s not. And it’s authority the President might be able to use to transfer other funds.” • Democratic leaders told their side that they had to give President Trump some border barrier money as the price of avoiding a shutdown. The Washington Times said that key liberal groups, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had called cutting ICE’s detention beds a red line issue for them. With that in mind, Democratic negotiators had demanded a limit of 34,000 detention beds, with most of those being reserved for border crossers, thereby limiting ICE’s ability to arrest, detain and deport immigrants living in the US illegally. Mr. Trump’s budget had sought 52,000 beds, and ICE currently has about 49,000 people in custody. A Democratic aide said the bill’s funding would put ICE on a “glide path” down to 40,520 beds. But Republicans said there’s enough flexibility to accommodate up to nearly 59,000 beds -- well above President Trump’s request -- should circumstances demand it. GOP Senator Roy Blunt, who is on the 17-member committee that has been working on the deal, said it includes “plenty of flexibility” for the administration to add beds if needed : “There’s $750 million that could be repurposed if detention beds become an ongoing issue. It would be our view that there’s enough flexibility there for internal enforcement of immigration control to detain people who have a criminal record who should be detained.” Senator Richard Shelby, the Republicans’ chief negotiator, said “all Presidents” have used reprogramming powers. Senator Shelby told President Trump the deal would provide more than $22 billion on border security, according to TheHill : "I've told him that, as I said a few minutes ago, that Mr. President we had a good reception in the caucus today about this and we know it's multi-year, we know it's going to cost a lot of money but it's a good start." Senator Shelby said he assured Trump Republicans on the Hill shared his concerns that the the bill didn't contain "everything he wanted. I told him I shared that, we all do. But...that he's getting a good down payment." • Some conservatives labeled the $1.375 billion of wall funding inadequate. Representative Mark Green of Tennessee said : “President Trump’s emergency appropriations request was for one-fifth of the total wall cost. Now we’re discussing appropriating one-fifth of the one-fifth. This is embarrassing. Congress isn’t leaving the President much of a choice.” • BUT, Representative Mark Meadows, although he was a signatures on the Freedom Caucus letter and is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, appeared resigned to the fact that there’s little he and his conservative allies in the House can do to stop the deal from moving forward : “We don’t have leverage on this particular issue because it obviously is going to be Democrat-led, both in the House and in the Senate to get this done.” Meadows predicted that President Trump would reluctantly sign the deal and said the President could then use executive action to go further. • On Wednesday, the President told the media at the White House that he does not want another shutdown. That has to mean that he will sign the bill. • • • VOTERS WANT THE IMMIGRATION DEAL. Fox News released on Wednesday a poll it took between February 10 and 12 that shows that : "A sizable majority of voters favors a broad immigration deal that includes a border barrier, non-barrier security measures, and humanitarian aid. At the same time, support for a wall along the US-Mexico border stands its highest since 2015. The number favoring the wall inched up for the second time in two months to 46%, according to the latest Fox News Poll. It was 43% last month during the government shutdown and 39% in September. The high mark was 50% in November 2015. Currently, 50% oppose the wall, down one point since January. A bipartisan 66% majority favors a budget deal that includes funding for some form of a border barrier, plus other security measures and humanitarian relief. Majorities of both parties, 60% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans, favor the compromise; And, 75% of pro-wall voters favor the broad immigration deal, as do 58% of wall opponents." • While by a 43-35% margin, voters say House Speaker Nancy Pelosi looked stronger politically after the shutdown ended than President Donald Trump -- the shutdown didn’t damage the President’s numbers. Both his job approval and his personal favorable rating are within a point or two of where they have been for months, with 43% of voters have a favorable view of Trump, down three points from 46% in December. His negative rating went up two points to 54%. That puts his favorable rating underwater by 11 points. For comparison, Pelosi is underwater by 15 points. Since December, positive views of her held steady at 36%, with a 51% unfavorable rating. • • • DEAR READERS, in later BREAKING news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced on the Senate floor just after 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon that President Trump will sign the budget bill AND declare a national emergency to fund his demand to build a border wall. McConnell said : "I had an opportunity to speak with President Trump and he, I would say to all my colleagues, has indicated he's prepared to sign the bill. He also [will] be issuing a national emergency declaration at the same time. I indicated I'm going to support the national emergency declaration." • If you support President Trump and want to secure our borders, the best thing you can do is understand that he should take the deal and sign the bill. The national emergency declaration will take care of the rest. • Never turn down money -- especially when Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are offering it. • As President Reagan said : "If you don’t get it all, some said, don’t take anything. I’d learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933 : 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.' If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that’s what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it." • Well, President Trump didn't get 75% of what he asked for -- he barely got 50%...BUT... • Take the money, Mr. President, and send Mitch and the GOP troops back for more. AND, issue the national emergency declaration so America can begin to be properly protected while the open-border radical Democrats try to figure out how to stop the wall and keep the flow of illegal aliens coming, because they support Democrat politicians, sometimes with fraudulent votes.