The budget request is 'not even worth the paper it's written on,' Rep. Nita Lowey said.
On Monday, Trump will formally ask Congress to hand over $8.6 billion to build an unwanted wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Reuters. After rejecting his previous request for $5.7 billion, Democrats remain opposed to paying for a wall Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would fund.
The request is "not even worth the paper it's written on," Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said.
In a joint statement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer lamented damage Trump caused the country last time around.
"Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government," the two leaders said. "The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson."
The budget request comes even as Trump falsely boasts he's already building the border wall. His own Justice Department recently admitted that Trump lied in a December 2018 statement claiming to have a contract to build a 115-mile section of a border wall. In another instance, Trump posted a video of an old section of the border wall being repaired and falsely claimed it was part of his border wall construction.
The last time Congress refused to pay billions of dollars to fun a border wall, Trump threw a tantrum and shut down the government for 35 days. During that time, 800,000 federal workers faced all kinds fo difficulty as Trump denied them their paychecks. One survey showed 1 in 4 federal workers had to visit a food pantry just to obtain enough food to feed their families.
In the broader sense, the Trump shutdown caused $11 billion in economic damage to the American economy.
With the new request, Trump is once again eager to highlight his obsession with a border wall over the well-being of America. After Trump signed legislation to reopen the government, he declared a fake national emergency at the southern border in order to steal money from other programs to pay for the wall. He's even considering taking money away from the schools attended by children of military families.
In his 2020 budget, Trump once again prioritizes the wall over programs that actually help Americans. According to the Washington Post, the new budget wants billions for the wall, but also includes cuts totaling $2.7 trillion over 10 years to anti-poverty programs, environmental protection programs, and a host of other domestic programs.
If Trump wants to fight about the border wall once more, as his budget indicates, he seems to be setting himself up to be humiliated all over again.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
