McConnell blocks House bill to reopen government for second time

I guess it is still on the Republicans that the government is partially shut down.

Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed package to reopen the federal government for a second time in as many weeks on Tuesday.

Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Ben Cardin (Md.) asked for consent to take up a package of bills that would reopen the federal government.

One bill would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, while the other would fund the rest of the impacted departments and agencies through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Under Senate rules, any senator can ask for consent to vote on or pass a bill, but any senator can object. McConnell blocked the two bills, saying the Senate wouldn't "participate in something that doesn't lead to an outcome."

McConnell for weeks has said he would not bring legislation to the floor on the shutdown unless there was a deal between President Trump and Democrats on border security, the issue that has triggered the shutdown. McConnell has described other votes as "show votes."

"The solution to this is a negotiation between the one person in the country who can sign something into law, the president of the United States, and our Democratic colleagues," McConnell said Tuesday.

Roughly a quarter of the government has been shut down since Dec. 22 over an entrenched fight on funding for Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The Senate passed a stopgap bill late last year by a voice vote, but it was rejected by the White House because it didn’t include extra border money.

Trump is demanding more than $5 billion for his signature wall. Democratic leadership has pointed to $1.3 billion as their cap and argued that it must go to fencing.

House Democrats passed their package to fully reopen the government earlier this month and have begun passing individual appropriations bills as they try to ratchet up pressure on Republicans to break with the president and support the legislation. But those bills are expected to go nowhere in the GOP-led Senate.

McConnell sought to drive a wedge between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Democrats earlier Tuesday, characterizing the newly minted House leader as making border security “take a back seat to the political whims of the far left.”

“Here in the Senate my Democratic colleagues have an important choice to make. They could stand with common sense border experts, with federal workers and with their own past voting records, by the way, or they could continue to remain passive spectators complaining from the sidelines, as the Speaker refuses to negotiate with the White House,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.

Talks between Trump and congressional leadership are at a standstill after the president walked out of a White House meeting last week when Pelosi told him that Democrats would not consider border wall funding even if he fully reopened the government.

Source

The article is quite long hence why I don't copy it all in OP.

McConnel says he will block any bill until Trump and the Democrats reaches an agreement regarding border security. Thus blaming Dems. Given that Trump has claimed ownership on this shutdown I doubt that is the case, and rather acting as a shield for Trump and trying to shift the blame over on the Dems instead.

What do you say?

I think most people see through and it will ultimately hurt the republican party...........so win there.

Sounds like your assessment is correct in my view.

I've heard that Pelosi's favorability ratings have been improving the longer this goes on and Trump's unfavorable ratings have been getting worse. It gives her and Democrats even less reason to fold the longer this drags on and all the more leverage to work with.

It's the Democrats' fault because I want it to be.

Can't argue with that logic.

How is public opinion of the politicians themselves leverage? We just had an election, so nothing much is on the line for them. The attention span of the average voter is pretty short. Most people blamed Republicans in the house for the 2013 shutdown, and praised Dems in the senate, and yet Republicans ended up winning the Senate the next year.

If you want to look at favorability, Quinnipiac put out a recent poll that puts support for the wall at 43%, the highest it's ever been.

With this shutdown dragging on so long, Dems are going to have to find new excuses. Their biggest was cost, but this shutdown is costing us, what, hundreds of millions so far? It's not going to be long before that excuse simply isn't valid.

Ohhh look! Another leftwing circle jerk.

It's the Democrats fault because they wont fund the wall. 5 billion is chump change.

It's not. And the revenue was decreased this year as well. You cannot spend spend spend and not worry about bills coming due.

@LJS9502_basic: We gave hundreds of billions of dollars to farmers, over 100 billion to Iran. I keep hearing all this crap about cost but 5.6 billion for government spending is minor.

I personally would have made Marijuana legal and used the tax dollars from that to fund the wall.

So 57% of the people are opposed to the wall in that case?

Anywho, a politician's influence and ability to do their job tends to wax and wane with with public approval. If they find that they're disliked by their consituents and those constituents are suddenly calling on them to do things the poltician is generally against they will either have to capitulate or do what they really want regardless and roll the dice on the consequences. If a politician wants to do what he or she actually supports the best way to go about it is to get support from the people who voted for them.

"The solution to this is a negotiation between the one person in the country who can sign something into law, the president of the United States, and our Democratic colleagues," McConnell said Tuesday.

Mitch offering further confirmation that the republican senate is letting the president hijack the entire party.

Turtle man has got to go. Is it possible to remove him from his position before 2020

The wall is just not about wasted money. Again it will mess with eco system, the climate, and screw people out of their property. All this for something that will have NO impact on illegal immigration nor drugs.

@LJS9502_basic: I think it will have some impact. Yes we need more then a wall but I do believe it will have an impact.

Why? If the illegals and drugs are coming over at legitimate border crossings why should we waste money and wall the country in? It's ridiculous.

Lol love the math. 57% also blame Trump for the shutdown and 36% democrats, if we're going by polls. Last week it was 47 vs 42.

Republicans in the Senate need to offer 3 votes to oust him as Senate leader. However, the problem is not just figuring out a person 3 republicans and 48 democrats could vote for, it's getting 3 republicans to vote at all. Thing is, Trump put them all in a lose-lose situation, and they need punching bag Mitch in place to keep them from having to do stuff that they could be accountable for in 2020, a year where they are very vulnerable. So the wall either needs to lose enough support that the entire party can afford to bail on Trump, or the wall needs to gain enough favor that Democrats have to cave. Of course, all polling points to the former.

As for getting McConnell out of Senate, he'll probably be in office until death of old age because folks in Kentucky are of the better-russian-than-democrat persuasion.

@LJS9502_basic: They put wall in new Mexico and it brought illegal boarder crossings down from 120k over 5 years to about 12k. That is a significant decrease.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2018/01/13/we-already-have-a-border-wall-and-it-works/amp/

I'm all for more people and better screening at checkpoints as well.

The shutdown is objectively Trump's fault. This isn't up for debate, it's written in factual events and history during December 2018. Nothing changes such a fact.

P.S. Want to see an even bigger Circle Jerk? Most Americans:

Trump Took Responsibility for the Shutdown, and Voters Say It’s His

It’s Week 4 Of The Shutdown. Americans Still Think Trump Is To Blame.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/13/politics/cnn-poll-shutdown-trump/index.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-14/trump-took-responsibility-for-shutdown-and-voters-give-it-to-him

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/its-week-4-of-the-shutdown-americans-still-think-trump-is-to-blame/

This wall is all a political move by Trump. Dems don't have to find excuses for something they didn't cause, Trump does. Trump shut the government down, which is why he's the one making the excuse as to why he shut it down.

His excuse was drugs and the border, but then that got fact checked. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/live-updates/trump-white-house/live-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-president-trumps-immigration-speech/most-imported-heroin-comes-through-legal-points-of-entry/?utm_term=.3b8ef853d2b3

His excuse was a national emergency on the border, but then that got fact checked. Illegal Immigration is at a decade low. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2018/11/27/u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-total-dips-to-lowest-level-in-a-decade/

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/08/683205814/fact-check-trumps-oval-office-pitch-for-a-border-wall

when did we give Iran 100 billion dollars?

But why hold 800,000 workers livelihoods hostage over it, it's at a decade low.

@zaryia: It is up for debate. If Democrats funded the wall the shutdown would be over. Hes not settling for anything less then funding the wall.

Yup, but this is pretty much ending with a congressional bypass of the presidential veto at some point. When? Maybe in 2-3 months.

But Trump started that, with wanting his political border wall. Everything was fine and set to go.

He's holding 800,000 lives hostage to get his political 2020 voting issue.

You think it'll last 2 or 3 more months? Man, I sincerely hope you're wrong.

I do too, but Trump is dead locked. He won't budge. And the reality is that although federal workers are beggining to hurt, they haven't bled enough. In 2-3 months we'll see massive strikes, when they can't afford a loan or help from family members in order to pay the bills.

I heard most of them are taking odd jobs, but these do not compare to their salaries and federal workers do live paycheck to paycheck. It'll hurt badly soon.

What an absolute piece of dogshit.

The people want the government open, and Donald "What Do I Care I Won't Be Around" Trump clearly does not care, has nothing on the line.

@blackballs: I'm hoping the next jobs report is enough to startle him awake.

Speaking about that, because of the government shutdown wouldn't unemployment technically be down?

@blackballs: Those working without pay count as employed, those furloughed do not.

Man what incompetent governance. So much for the master negotiator, I suppose. ?

This shutdown isn’t really about national security, that’s simply an excuse. $5 billion honestly isn’t that much money, and while Trump’s ego and the Democrats fight against what it represents are factors at play, they’re diverting from what this is really about: this is the first standoff after the Democrats took the House. Trump and the GOP are effectively going to acknowledge they are abdicating power if they acquiesce, and Democrats will concede they are unable to even hold the backbone to attain and utilize it in the first place to be able to affect change if they do so. I’d argue the Democrats have much more to gain here than the Republicans do.

This is pretty bad. No side will ever back down as it will set precedent for severe political ramifications and the redefining of power dynamics. I think it’s a fairly safe bet that this is going to devolve into civil unrest, perhaps significantly so. It may in fact last many, many months. Thankfully the GOP are getting the majority of the blame, as they should, and this will hurt them in the future. But I’m curious when either the riots will begin or the GOP sycophants in Congress will turn on Trump and override his veto....that is if Mitch even lets it get that far.

@vl4d_l3nin: thw Republicans only won tje senete because of the locations of the seats available. They won seat that were always going to be republican.

It is literally .11% of the total federal spending. That is like a dime in our own budget. Yes, it is chump change in the grand scheme of things!

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/trumps-5b-border-wall-request-equals-011-federal-spending

I hope the government stays closed for years. Why pay democrats when they won't do their jobs? Democrats are for illegal Mexicans, not Americans. Democrats are doing nothing for America. Why pay democrats if they aren't working?

We should keep the government shut down until the wall is built. I write my representative, the DNC, the GOP and the white house everyday in support of the shut down. We need proper border security once and for all. The absolute minimum we need right now is a basic wall to deter migrants from improper entry.

Right because that area isn't being used so waste money, steal property, and build a wall to enclose your own population for absolutely zero effect. Makes perfect trump base sense.

@tarnalia: no we don't. Law enforcement in those areas made it clear a wall is no needed.

try 50 billion. That is what actual construction engineers estimate for a 6 meter long wall (20' feet). Civil engineers would most likely have even higher estimates.

Materials.

A 6 meter tall wall would contain over three times the amount of concrete used to build the Hoover Dam, spread out over thousands of miles in remote terrain such as deserts, rivers and rugged Mountains without roads.

Logistics.

Soil engineers must survey the route before they can design the foundations for the wall. Texas alone has 1,500 over different soil conditions. First, engineers must, plan/design and build 2,000 miles of road that can handle the 52 million trips of heavy trucks. Terrain that prohibits construction like floodplains, tributaries, mountains or a rivers will see the costs skyrocket.

Laws.

Over 30 laws, must be rewritten or bypassed for this wall to be a thing. We all know how expensive legal fees are.

Destruction of property.

The Rio Grande river is the natural border between the two countries, a river which often changes course. The wall has to be constructed well inside the US boundary so essentially, those living in the area may find their access to Americas 5th largest waterway significantly harder to access. Private landowners, municipalities and national parks may be forced to abandon hundreds of thousands of riverfront acres.

Environment.

Not just humans but animals too will lose access to the Rio Grande, their drinking water and feeding areas. Environmental issues will slow down work to a grinding halt that drag through the courts for years upon years, costing millions, if not billions in the process.

Bureaucracy.

To cover the wall, an estimated 10,560 guard posts will be needed. Every post would need at least 2 on duty with 3 shift a day. Thousands of tributaries, rivers and floodplains will need 24/7 guards too since the Mexicans could scurry thru the gaps. 95,000 full time guards with full benefit and retirement. All in all this would cost about 7 billion per year this annual cost alone is more than the massively underestimated cost of the wall.

Maintenance.

Just maintaining the wall will cost around 5 billion every year. This is just for the wall, not the actual staff needed to operate it.

First of all, we didnt give them 100 billion dollars we unfroze their money and assets.

Second even if we did so what? Doesnt excuse this waste of money.

And for what?

• People looking to illegally enter the country will just turn to kingpins giving them even more wealth and power.
• All it takes is 1 corrupt official for the whole wall to be rendered null and void
• The wall will take years to build, all it takes is a single democrat (or sensible republican) in the white house, for the wall to collapse on itself.
• Modern technology already trumps wall. Tunnels, have been discovered all over the place, walls are static and easy to build around.
• Upcoming technology beats walls. You know Snake's up+B special in Super Smash Bros? That technology is estimated to become reality in about a dozen years. Yes flying drones that can carry people. The wall will become obsolete by the time it is finished, if it isnt already obsolete.
• Increased border security has counterintuivitively disrupted circular flow of illegal immigrants, leading to a net increase of illegals.
• Most drugs come via ports. The cartels may very much be building their own submarines to carry drugs into the country.

@Maroxad: It's only 5 billion when done by illegal immigrants. :P

@Maroxad: "A 6 meter tall wall would contain over three times the amount of concrete used to build the Hoover Dam"

Maybe we could set it up so all the people pouring over it would generate electricity.

Hmm, wouldn´t it be better @horgen to just make a sticky thread called "government shutdown" and have all these similar threads in there?

because the arguments are going to be pretty much the same.

What's with the influx of new alts/trolls? Shut down must really be rattling some people.

You're only saying this because most of the blame, rightfully so going by factual events, is going to the GOP and Trump.

Speaking of which, today:

McConnell blocks bill to reopen most of government

https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/425945-mcconnell-blocks-bill-to-reopen-most-of-government

And you are only posting this because you know the blame is with the Democrats who act like spoiled kids who have all eyes set on 2020 instead of right now.

@Jacanuk: Dude it's not the democrats who stopped the goverment from being funded from the end of last year. It was trump.the republicans had a bill to fund it the end of last year and vetoed it for a wall. A wall tjat has no guarantee to be built if funded.

Then you have mcconnel that will not allow a vote to happen in the Senate knowing if he did both democrats and republicans would pass the bill to fund the government with out that will.

Sorry but it's not the democrats who are the problem here.

Of course, it´s not the Democrats.

And we could argue this until the moon turns blue, but in the end, you prove the point that we will just have to disagree and no amount of ping pong will change that.

If you're disagreeing with him then you are not facing reality.

@Jacanuk: on what? You said trump is not at fault and have nothing to back that. I said the democrats are not at fault and use fact to back it.

Some how you're bias opinion has ground to my opinion based on fact?