The incoming Democratic Caucus Chair denied on MSNBC Saturday that a wall would make America safer.

“We [Democrats] are not going to allow the American people to be held hostage to a $5 billion, or somewhere south of that, ransom note in order to build a ridiculous border wall that’s not going to make anyone safe,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

The quote on MSNBC’s program “Up” came in the context of a discussion about whiny federal government employees who have been furloughed and have not been paid. To be sure, they will be back-paid when the shutdown ends, and are currently on what is the equivalent of a free paid vacation. But the mainstream press has neglected to mention that fact because they want President Donald J. Trump to look like an evil monster who is denying ordinary people their paychecks.

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The only government employees who are furloughed are considered “non-essential,” and should be thankful to be employed in the first place, considering that they are paid with our tax dollars and that there is no such thing as a “non-essential employee” in the private sector. Forgive those of us with brains for not sympathizing with these whiny, overpaid bureaucrats.

Jeffries also said that Trump’s demand for funding for a border wall was a “presidential temper tantrum” and a “fifth century solution to a 21st century problem,” both lines obviously fed to him by Democratic consultants and strategists. He also claimed that “every expert says” that a border wall will not keep Americans safe. Apparently Jeffries does not consider Border Patrol agents, who work on the border every day and overwhelmingly support building a wall, to be experts. As usual, the “experts” are not the ordinary people with firsthand knowledge of the issue, but rather some faceless elite D.C. think-tankers who have never been west of I-95.

Of course, Jeffries offered no real solution that would keep Americans – like police Cpl. Ronil Singh, shot and killed last week by an illegal – safe. Instead, he offered the typical do-nothing empty platitudes that politicians always offer.

“We have a broken immigration system. We need to strengthen it. We need to do it in a bipartisan way. We’re willing to provide increased funding for things like enhanced fencing, technology, drones, satellites, things that the experts have said will make the border safe. We also have to make the border more humane, and Democrats want to proceed in a fashion that does both,” he said.