Democrat Congressman: ‘If Putin Wanted To Harm America, He’d Shut Down The Federal Government’
Patrick Howley
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Democrat congressman John Garamendi said Tuesday on the House floor that Vladimir Putin would shut down the federal government if he wanted to damage the United States.
“If Putin wanted to hurt America, he would shut down the federal government,” Garamendi said, comparing President Trump to the Russian leader.
Garamendi also said “there is no emergency,” referring to the border crisis.
Garamendi’s staff tweeted the “hostage” talking point while he was speaking. Garamendi’s remarks included an extended passage on the government shutdown’s effect on duck hunting. One of Garamendi’s posters fell off its pedestal while he was speaking.
Democrat rhetoric on the House floor Tuesday has been over-the-top.
Democrat Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib incorrectly said on the House floor that Congress does not need President Donald Trump’s support to re-open the federal government.
“We don’t need the president’s support, so please” take up a continuing resolution to re-open the government without funding the border wall, Tlaib begged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Tlaib’s statement is false, because even if the Republican-controlled Senate did pass a Democrat House bill, President Trump would not sign it. As clearly evidenced by the events so far in this government shutdown, Congress has no chance of overturning a Trump veto.
The House failed to even pass a short-term spending bill Tuesday to re-open the government through February 1, so Mitch McConnell does not even have to worry about the Democrats’ failed H.J. Res 27.
Tlaib spoke of the supposed damage to America being done by the suspension of workers in the EPA, and said that the president is using people as “pawns.”
Democrats failed to get the two-thirds vote needed to re-open the federal government through February 1 without funding President Donald Trump’s border wall on one of their attempts Tuesday.
House members favored the measure — which was under suspension — by a 237-187 vote, but that was not enough votes to pass.
The House is trying to get their mission accomplished through a different continuing resolution Tuesday.
Democrats’ failure to even get the H.J. Res 27 bill to the Senate further underscores how President Trump has all the leverage in these negotiations.
The House REJECTED H.J.Res. 27 – Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act for 2019 by a vote of 237-187 (needed two-thirds vote).
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) January 15, 2019
President Donald Trump could save enough money to pay for his entire southern border wall with change to spare if he chooses not to sign a bill guaranteeing back pay for furloughed government workers. It would only take three pay periods over six weeks for the government to save more than $6 billion, more than the $5.7 billion Trump is asking for to build the Wall.
The mainstream media is reporting that Trump is prepared to sign the back-pay bill that went to his desk days ago, but Trump has not signed anything, and to do so would knock out some of his leverage over Schumer and Pelosi — which does not seem like it would be in line with “Art of the Deal” policy.
The shutdown — in which 800,000 workers are not working– is saving taxpayers more than two billion dollars for every two-week pay period, but the savings will only count if Trump chooses not to give them back pay.
Here is a chart on the savings, courtesy of the Center for American Progress:
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