Dreamers and the Wall

Here we are again holding the Dreamers and DACA hostage for the sake of politicians in Washington. Both Democrats and Republicans get to share the blame.

The Democrats want to tie the government funding bill to a DACA resolution. The Republicans want to tie funding to Trump's border wall. At this point, no one knows what Trump wants. He keeps changing his mind. 

After a meeting with members of Congress, Trump said he would sign whatever DACA/funding bill that they came up with. So, working in good faith, members of Congress from both parties came up with a plan. It appeared to include most of Trump's requirements for an acceptable bill. During the presentation of the bipartisan bill to Trump, he came up with his "shithole countries" comment. He also found fault with the funding for his border wall. So much for his promise to sign whatever Congress came up with.

Since Trump scuttled compromise on DACA, the Democrats now have no incentive to compromise on the wall funding. That means we have a real chance that the government may have to shut down at midnight on Friday, 1/19.

In an effort to avoid a government shut down, Republicans separated DACA from the funding bill but added a CHIP extension. Their hope here is that the Democrats either would not vote against CHIP or if they did, would take a public relations hit and ultimately a hit at the polls in 2018. 

Let me put this as plainly as I can. DACA needs to be resolved and CHIP needs to be funded. Both of these programs deal with children and young adults. People who had nothing to do with our country's fiscal problems. Nothing to do with the petty impasse in our political systems. 

The regularly scheduled funding issues need to be fixed. They come up too often and it is always a major drama. No other issues should be allowed to be attached to government funding. Our elected representatives should take the DACA and Dreamer issues head-on. CHIP should have been funded and extended months ago. 

It is past time for members of Congress and the administration to show some guts. A little cooperation would be nice too. Stop playing with the lives and health of our children.

wjh

Very Random Thoughts - December 2017

• Why do we always have to cut taxes? Our infrastructure and education system could certainly use a tax increase. 
• Maybe in the future, any prominent man accused of sexual harassment or assault should be interviewed by a female reporter. That Matt Lauer interview of Bill O'Reilly is an example of why. 
• You do not have a 160 IQ, regardless of what that Facebook quiz says.  
• Why are the inhabitants of Wales called Welsh? Why aren't they just called Wales or would that be insensitive to those overweight Welsh?
• I think we need to change the name "polls" to "guesses".
• It was fascinating to watch news reporters and anchors try to explain net neutrality. Something most of them obviously didn't understand.
• When someone says "that's not who I am", usually apologizing for bad behavior, you can bet that is exactly who they are. 
• Isn't it amazing how many officials decide to "retire" right after they screw-up? Of course, it is usually to spend more time with their family.
• Blackberries aren't really black and blueberries are purple.
• How did "gh" get to be pronounced "f"? Tough, enough.

wjh