So Rand Paul is going to force Trump to use his veto power to maintain his wall emergency declaration. He recently said that he couldn’t allow the executive branch to use money for the wall that wasn’t specifically allocated by Congress and would vote to block the order.
The Republican Party cheerleading session that is the Southern Kentucky Lincoln Day Dinner veered slightly off course Saturday with this pronouncement by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Bowling Green: “I can’t vote to give extra-Constitutional powers to the president.”
In a speech to the crowd of nearly 200 Republican officeholders and supporters at Western Kentucky University’s Augenstein Alumni Center, Paul interjected, in a speech devoted largely to praising the work of President Donald Trump, his opinion that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border is a dangerous precedent.
“I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress,” Paul said just moments after drawing applause for his praise of some Trump policies and his ridicule of some congressional Democrats. “We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.”
Paul’s pronouncement may mean a rebuff in the Senate of Trump’s plan to use emergency powers to funnel billions of dollars into building a wall at the border. The Democrat-led House of Representatives has already voted to reject the emergency powers, and the Republican-controlled Senate is expected to vote on a similar proposal soon.
Three GOP senators – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – have already said they will vote to derail the emergency declaration. If Paul joins them and the Senate’s 47 Democrats, the president will need to veto the measure in order to get his emergency money.
This is a textbook example of why “conservatives” can’t get anything accomplished. They justify continued political losses by citing their “principles.” But there is nothing principled about losing over and over again.
Here’s the deal. Congress ceded authority to the executive branch and gave it broad power to declare national emergencies. So Paul and these other Republicans talking about how Trump’s order is against the Constitution or whatever is ridiculous.
It’s a mute point though. Trump has already said he’d use veto powers to protect the emergency declaration. But the bottom line is Republicans need to stop doing this sort of shit. It’s the primary reason why America has been flushed down the sewer. They’re afraid of going on the offensive out of fear that they’ll get called mean names by the Jewish media. That’s why we see bullshit like homosexual marriage and trannyism promoted to children.
