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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SueEllenRules!" data-source="post: 70757" data-attributes="member: 87">Freedom Caucus Threatens to Hold Government Hostage over Trump’s Border WallAlso known as “the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border.”<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In 2015, during his big speech announcing his candidacy for president, Donald Trump told the (allegedly) paid actors assembled before him, “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” Yet nearly six months into his time in office, nary a fence has been built. There are a few reasons for the continued absence of a Trump-branded, immigrant-repelling edifice, among which is the fact that The Wall is generally unpopular with voters. Another is that, despite Trump’s insistence to the contrary, Mexico has said in no uncertain terms that it will absolutely not be paying for said Wall.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">That’s problematic, given that such a monument to Trump’s ego would be pretty expensive, with estimates coming in at over $21 billion. “I don’t see how you can get a bill like that through [Congress] without offset. I don’t see how that’s possible,” Senator Lisa Murkowski told CNN in February. Senator Bob Corker has said, “I don’t want to see any spending, additional spending on anything done that is not paid for.” Luckily for Trump, he’s getting some much-needed support from Congress’s reliably right-wing House Freedom Caucus, which is apparently prepared to allow the federal government to shut down unless the House and Senate pass a budget that funds the construction of the structure.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In an interview with Breitbart News, Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, said, “There is nothing more critical that has to be funded than funding the border wall for two reasons. One is it is a commitment that the president made to the American people and one that he intends on keeping, but the second part of that is for our national security we must secure our borders. And the American people will accept no less.” Meadows also told Breitbart that his conversations with Trump suggest, unsurprisingly, that the president thinks shutting down the government over The Wall is a great idea, and would veto any funding bill that fails to put up the cash.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Of course, building The Wall wouldn’t do much to make anyone safer, or prevent immigrants—who most often fly into the U.S. and simply stay there—from entering the country. As Representative Will Hurd told The Washington Post in January, “Building a wall is the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border.” But big, bold, mostly symbolic, generally uninformed ideas are President Trump’s bread and butter. Shutting down the government in the process? That’s just a bonus for a job poorly done.</li> </ul>Freedom Caucus Threatens to Hold Government Hostage over Trump’s Border Wall - Vanity Fair<a href="https://apple.news/AUIufJkmbSxqxN0B7IqJ-gg" target="_blank">https://apple.news/AUIufJkmbSxqxN0B7IqJ-gg</a></blockquote>

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