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The Screaming Moderate

Here's what Speaker Pelosi should say

1/18/2019

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Mr. President,

It is time to end the shutdown. You can have the $5.7 billion you want to build your wall to ensure that brown people seeking a better life don’t come here.

You can have the money because you have damaged this country enough with this shutdown, keeping dedicated federal workers from doing their jobs and stopping millions of Americans from getting the services they pay their taxes for.

You, as the head of the federal government, should know better. But since you don’t, we in the legislative branch will give in to your selfish approach to running this country.

You can have your $5.7 million so we can get back to having a secure nation.

Maybe you hadn’t noticed but polls consistently show that a majority of our country support border security, as do I, but not a wall which will become a symbol not of the beacon of freedom our country has always been, welcoming immigrants from all walks of life, but a wall which blocks people from coming here.

You can have the money because I prefer that when other countries think of the United States of America they see an image of the Statue of Liberty welcoming them, not a wall barring them from our country.

You can have the money not because your wall is right or just, but because while it’s not a piddling amount, it is not enough money to stop this country from being the best in the world. If you are able to build even a mile of the wall before you leave office, I will be surprised, so here's the money...try to build your wall.

You can have the money despite your repeated promise that Mexico will pay for it. You can have the money not because you have fantasized a roundabout way that Mexico will pay for it – they won’t – but because this nonsense has gone on long enough.

You can have the money not because you are a great negotiator – you are not – but because your mean, petulant decision to close our government is unfair to the people who elected you and me to serve them.

You can have the money because federal workers are putting off mammograms because they need to spend what would have been their copay to buy food for their children. These people who dedicate their lives to the rest of us deserve far better treatment than being told to work without pay. Or to stay home and we'll pay you later even though you say this shutdown could go on for years. How do you expect these folks to last years without a paycheck?

You can have the money because we have FBI agents, Secret Service agents, TSA agents and others whose minds are on how they will provide for their families rather than the important jobs they have keeping us all safe.

Mr. President, you can have the money and I’m not asking for anything in return except for you to learn that you and I are not important. The people of this country are.

3 Comments

The shutdown is solving nothing

1/9/2019

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President Trump’s low-energy performance last night I doubt changed any minds in the general population but I don’t think that was his target audience.

Best guess is it was the minority Republicans in the House and the majority Republicans in the Senate, who really hold the key to whether he wins the border wall battle or not.

Republican Senate support is slowly peeling away and if that disappears, there is no chance of a border wall and Mr. Trump’s presidency will hit a significant turning point. And a significant promise made to his all-important base will be broken.

I think another result of last night’s speech to the nation is that he gave away leverage to the TV networks. All of them carried his speech, as they should have. But it contained no news. Only a partisan pitch for his wall. That allows the nets to be more publicly un-trusting of any White House requests for air time. This time, they really had no choice. Next time, they will. That’s an important tool in a President’s bag to lose.

This administration has lost its credibility with all but his base and when you request network time, there better be a good reason. This speech was not a good reason.

Trump claimed to network representatives at an off-the-record lunch yesterday that he didn’t want to do the speech but his advisors wanted him to. Uh, he hasn’t listened to advisors, especially on media counsel, before and I doubt he did now. Anytime this president goes on TV live, he has a reason and a goal and I doubt his staff forces him to do anything. He also is scheduled to make a trip to the Mexican border this week, which he also claims he doesn’t want to do. Lowering expectations anyone?

From his first sentence last night, he lied or misrepresented the truth. This was his first line: “Tonight, I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.” There is no security crisis at the border. None. Have illegal immigrants snuck through and committed crimes? Yes, but they are isolated incidents, not reaching “crisis” status. And any humanitarian crisis is more attributable to Trump having migrants blocked from entering or taking children away from their parents. (Do we know if they all have been reunited, by the way? I'm asking you, The Media.)

Trump has painted himself into a corner on the wall. So have the Democrats but they actually have the votes to stop a wall. Both sides should agree to end the shutdown which is doing nothing but hurting 800,000 federal employees and their families and the beneficiaries of some key government programs, like food stamps. The Administration agreed to pay those stamps for February. The shutdown is also hurting travelers waiting in long lines at airports, as TSA folks work without pay and are starting to quit their jobs because no pay doesn’t pay the bills. Students are being hurt because they can’t get government approvals on college loans. And a host of other services stopped.

And if, as the President claims, many federal workers support his shutdown and his wall, I’d like to see their names. We know an organization representing border agents supports him because he posed with five agents recently to make that point. But I know of no one else.

That’s a claim similar to Trump saying past presidents support his wall. They don’t.  Did any of them support a wall at one time? Maybe but time marched on and technologies have been developed that are more successful at border control.

Trump is trying to keep his biggest promise to voters in 2016. Well, half of his promise. He did say Mexico would pay for the wall. They won’t.

Who’s paying for the wall? You, me and the furloughed federal workers who aren’t getting paid for doing jobs that are important services to the country. I don't see any of us getting a refund for services not given.

And, the President gets elected and paid to lead a government that provides those services. He needs to end the shutdown and start doing his job.

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Shutdown: Will we be reimbursed for the services lost?

1/7/2019

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The partial shutdown of the federal government is ridiculous. The only ones being affected are you and me.

Both sides have boxed themselves into a corner. President Trump says he won’t accept a budget that doesn’t have funding for his wall and Democrats say they won’t accept any wall funding. Hard to find a compromise there.

Trump sells himself as a lot of things but one is that he is the best negotiator in the world. Hard to believe based on his career of business failures but let’s say he is the best: Would the world’s best negotiator lay out a position that can’ be compromised? And now only is that his position. During his campaign he promised, repeatedly to build this wall and have Mexico pay for it.

Clearing he know believes U.S. taxpayers must pay for it and claims we'll be reimbused at least through higher tax receipts based on his new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. Truth is, though, that not only is that agreement not yet approved by the Congress, the money we might get from taxes is not a "profit" that then will be moved to the "pay for the wall" account. That's Trump's attempt at sleight-of-hand.

The shutdown’s results are becoming quite real.  Airline controllers are working but not getting paid. How long do you ask someone to work under such stress for no pay and as their mortgage and other bills pile up? National parks are left unsafe and with garbage piling up and other health threats rising. I don’t know what the “typical” number of deaths in national parks is, but since the shutdown, seven people have died.

The Internal Revenue Service isn’t sure it can pay out refunds people will be expecting. They don't have the staff they normally would have to help taxpayers with tax questions.

The Housing department has sent letters to 1,500 landlords of public housing asking them to be patient for payment (just as landlord Trump would be patient in their situation, I’m sure).

Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who aren’t getting paid and are trying to figure out whether to pay the mortgage or buy groceries. And, yes, there are full-time employed men and women who face those choices now.

And the holdup is a wall, which Trump now is calling a steel barrier, as if that’s any different than a concrete wall. But that’s the Great Negotiator – change the branding and it’s new and shiny - and a compromise.

Needless to say, this is ridiculous, as is Trump’s claim that this shutdown could last “years." Unlikely for a lot of reasons but one big reason is the U.S. economy will be affected. Local residents aren’t getting paid, which means they aren’t paying their normal bills and aren’t going out to eat, or making big purchases; they are cutting costs where they can – all of which affects the local economies. All of which affect the national economy. And all congressmen and the President care about that as they head to the next election cycle.

I don’t know the answer other than for Trump to give up his wall or the Democrats to give up their opposition to his wall.

I do know this: All of them – congressmen and the President – swore to uphold the Constitution, which means serving the people, not themselves, and their adherence to that oath as we speak is questionable.

What can we the people do? Write letters, make phone calls. Make your view known. The President is claiming the people are clamoring for the wall. The Democrats say they aren’t. Let your Congressmen know your view. Send letters, make calls to the White House. Put pressure on them to force them to do whatever it is you want.

Holding up services to the people of this country is not the right answer, no matter how you feel. Will we get a refund for the weeks or months we have to go without those services? Will we only have to pay taxes for the months the entire government was open? Uh, we both know that answer.

Pointing fingers at Washington doesn’t resolve it either. But calling your public servants and making them know what you believe will.

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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