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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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The Democrats in Congress have supposedly worked out a ‘deal’ of some sorts with some Republicans for a paltry $1.4 billion of border wall fence/wall construction. Some Republicans however have said they never participated in talks with the Democrats or agreed to this sham deal.

If, however, there is a deal that Republicans support that has some amount of wall funding, and is not otherwise sabotaged by cutting beds at holding facilities and other deal-killers, then President Trump may be well advised to sign the ‘deal,’ AND without showing his cards in advance, sign the emergency declaration at the same bill signing ceremony while Nancy Pelosi is still standing next to him and watches with horror.

This will drive the Democrats and media absolutely crazy, inspire the Republican base, and impress independents who mostly support the wall. This will be a perfect kickoff moment for his reelection campaign, and will avoid criticism from the base for not having made major progress in building the wall.

The president can probably assemble about seven billion dollars in unused DoD funds, and by adding in the small amount in the ‘deal’ bill, the American people will end up with over eight billion in funding.

It gets better. The emergency declaration will be challenged by obstructionists in the 9th Circuit Court, meaning construction with emergency funds may be limited to New Mexico and Texas. So start building a lot of miles of wall there. The $1.4 billion or so in ‘deal’ funds would be unrestricted, so those funds would be used in California and Arizona pending the Supreme Court upholding the president’s use as per the National Emergencies Act of 1976.

The Democrats would gleefully keep the government shut down for months to avoid real funding for the wall, so because the president is already considering building the wall through an emergency declaration, he should take this ‘deal’ and then rub it in their face with the emergency declaration.

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More Red State Articles by Art Harman

Art Harman is the Director of the Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration. He was the Legislative Director and foreign policy advisor for Rep. Stockman (R-Texas) in the 113th Congress, and is a veteran policy analyst and grass-roots political expert. His expertise includes foreign relations, border security/amnesty, national security, transportation, foreign broadcasting and NASA/space policy. Mr. Harman developed the strategy to kill the 2013 Senate “gang of eight” amnesty bill as violating the Origination Clause, and provided policy advice to the Trump campaign, transition. and White House. He wrote what became the ‘bible’ of post-Brexit trade relations which was introduced in 2016 by Sen. Mike Lee as S. 3123, the United Kingdom Trade Continuity Act. Harman is a frequent guest on radio shows on key policy issues, and is an expert photographer.