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