Schumer Devises Plan to Block the Trump Wall

According to a new report in Axios, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer believes that the key to Donald Trump’s political downfall and the key to a Democratic Party resurgence lies in one strategy: Deny Trump, through any means necessary, congressional funding for The Wall.

While Trump promised to have Mexico pay for construction of the border wall, the logistics of fulfilling that promise have yet to be determined. For now, the Mexican government is standing firm in their vow to reject that bill, regardless of how or when it comes due. Trump, meanwhile, will need money to get the wall underway – money which will need to be appropriated by Congress. And since Republicans need 60 votes to pass legislation, Democrats have the power to freeze that money indefinitely.

Schumer believes that goes to the heart of his party’s mission over the next couple of years.

From Axios:

The evolving plan, being discussed by Schumer’s office and Senate appropriators: If Republicans put money for the wall into a bill, Democrats block it. It doesn’t matter what else is in the bill – Schumer will make it about the wall. The way Democrats see it, if they can block the wall, they’d crush a central feature of Trump’s political identity. And as the face of the strategy, Schumer would thrill the Democratic base.

Uh-huh. Anyone get the feeling we’re in for a Schumer for President campaign in the not-so-distant future?

Now, it is possible that Mitch McConnell could ram the bill through using the nuclear option, but Democrats are going forward on the belief that he’ll reject that strategy. And they’re probably not wrong, because very few Republicans actually want to build this wall in the first place – and McConnell is certainly not among them. Trump could bring enough pressure to bear on him to change his mind, but we’ll have to see how it shakes out.

Axios reports that the Trump team is considering another strategy: Attach border wall funding to the military budget, thus forcing Democrats into a sticky spot. How far will the Dems go to keep the wall from being built? Will they jeopardize our national security?? The ads write themselves.

But even if Democrats successfully block the funding, the administration says they have enough dough to get started. “We have enough money to get a decent amount of the wall done in the first year,” a White House source told the site. “We can reprioritize some funding within DHS. It’s not like work would come to a complete halt.”

Hey, even a “decent amount of the wall” is better than what we have now. Let Schumer play his games. We’ve got work to do.