What? Me Compromise?

In a Wall Street Journal piece Sunday about the length of the current partial government shutdown—they’re touting is (as are most of the NLMSM) as the longest on record as though a partial closure is somehow comparable to a complete closure—Kristina Peterson, Michael Bender, and Rebecca Ballhaus closed with a description of a bill being developed by Senators Rob Portman (R, OH) and Jerry Moran (R, KS) that would pair DACA recipient legal status with funding for border security, which would include a wall.

However.

Democrats are unlikely to view the bill as a fair trade, as it swaps $25 billion in border security for legal status—and not a path to citizenship—for the young immigrants….

This would be just another example of the Progressive-Democrats’ absolute refusal to negotiate. Such a bill would move the DACA matter significantly in their direction, with nothing at all to prevent them from coming back later with a bill to move “legal status” to “path to citizenship”—the Reagan move of taking half a loaf today and coming back tomorrow for the other half.

The Progressive-Democrats only know “No,” however.

For Whom Do They Work?

Some Progressive-Democrats in the House are beginning to wonder about their Party’s strategy for dealing with the border wall funding question, immigration reform generally, and, proximately, the current partial government shutdown.  For instance, here’s Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D, MI):

There’s a number of us on the Democratic side who are quite concerned that we’re not working on negotiated positions and taking the bull by the horns and trying to think about what it would look like[.]

Some are just irrational, like Harley Rouda (D, CA):

Next he’ll want a moat with alligators[.]

Reasonable or foolish, though, Progressive-Democrats must decide—sooner is better—whether they work for their constituents or for their Party leadership.

Pelosi Abandoned DACA Recipients

‘Way last December, now-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) revealed the depth of Progressive-Democrats’ opposition to anything Trump or Republican.

[Then-]House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi…rejected the idea of partially funding President Donald Trump’s border wall in exchange for amnesty for “Dreamers….”

Recall that in President Donald Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address, he laid out his four pillars of immigration policy:

  • legal status for 1.8 million illegal aliens brought to the US as minors, including those who had not registered under DACA
  • a secure border
  • ending the visa lottery
  • ending chain migration

Aside from “secure border” including a wall along parts of it in Trump’s lexicon, notice that he offered legalization for 1,000,000 more DACA types than the Progressive-Democrats had pretended to fight for during the Obama administration.

The Progressive-Democrats were for DACA recipients relief before they decided to completely abandon them.  Can the Progressive-Democratic Party get any lower, any more despicable, in its hysterical opposition to Trump?

Negotiate on the Wall?

That’s what some Progressive-Democrats in the House claim they want to do.  After the partial government shutdown is ended.  Congressmen Eric Swalwell (D, CA) and John Garamendi (D, CA) have made such commitments.

However.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA) has told President Donald Trump she will not negotiate on a border wall, demanding no funding whatsoever, even after the partial shutdown is ended.

Some questions arise.

Was Pelosi lying when she said that to Trump?

Was Pelosi lying to her caucus when they elected her Speaker on the basis of her promise to a significant fraction of her Party that she always and forever would oppose border wall funding?

Did Swalwell and Garamendi lie when they make their promise to negotiate after the partial shutdown ended?

How is it possible to negotiate with a Party whose members’ word cannot be believed?

Emergency Powers

President Donald Trump is giving very serious consideration to declaring a national emergency so he can reallocate certain funding toward building the border wall that’s so necessary in various places and that the Progressive-Democrats are so dead set against funding, even though they’ve voted, within the last decade, an order of magnitude more money for a wall than Trump is requesting.

Trump clearly has the legal authority to declare such an emergency and to carry out the funds reallocation.

Trump, though, has another way to force the Progressive-Democrats’ hand.  Here’s what Article II, Section 3 says, in pertinent part:

…he [the President] may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them….

The next time Congress takes a break of any sort—this just ending weekend, for instance—Trump should call both Houses back into active session and refuse to let them have any break, interruption, recess, or other departure from active presence on the House and Senate floors until demonstrably good faith negotiations over border wall funding are well in progress and initial (successful) votes conducted.