originally published here on Jan 16, 2017
A dear friend of mine recently posted on Facebook about how unfortunate it is that DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, has not been renewed yet and how sad it is that families are continuing to be broken up as the result.
It got me to thinking about how the stalemate over renewing DACA relates to other larger issues and I wrote quite a tome about that. That is, about the larger issues and what's really going on in Washington right now over DACA and passing a budget to keep the government operating. The budget part comes to a head on Friday. Yes, the day after tomorrow.
My piece is long. It's strident. And it's dead-on accurate. Bulldog is barking this afternoon. Here goes:
In response to my friend's post about deportations of Dreamers, I wrote:
Sad to say, there is no resolution to be found. The #PoserPrez demands funding of his accursed and very expensive boarder wall before he'll get on-board with a renewal of DACA. I'm proud to say that the leadership of the Democratic Party will not agree to this.
What you may not have known is that tRump and the Republicans are in perfect lock step that Democrats must agree to fund the border wall in order for them to negotiate about DACA but ALSO for them to talk about passing a budget.
So the government WILL shutdown on Friday because tRump demands everyone get on board with the border wall and authorize immediate funding to the tune of many billions of dollars before anything else can get done in Washington.
All of this is being done against the backdrop of our treasury being perpetually short of funds moving forward because of the just-passed tax cuts. (Well, it wasn't actually just a matter of cutting taxes; the bill is a complete restructuring of America's tax code. But I digress.)
Rethuglicans say we can't renew CHIP and have health insurance for kids who otherwise would be going to America's Emergency Rooms. We can't afford Medicare and Medicaid as they exist now, because of the same tax cuts, so now they "have to" start cutting these vital programs but... wait for it... WE CAN AFFORD THIS ACCURSED WALL!
This is how the fight about renewing DACA fits into the larger picture. It's NOT about any individual program, or passing a spending bill or any of that; it's about conservatives finally having a chance to kill the Federal Government we've known since the New Deal was put in place after the Great Depression. They want to have a Federal government that can fund the military and pay the light bill for Federal buildings, a few salaries and other bare essentials and then let the rest of it, literally, just go away.
GOP thinker and shaker and mover Grover Norquist summed up this concept of how a government should function with his infamous remark that conservatives needed to cut the Federal government down to the size "where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub". Maybe you guys missed that remark from many years ago or have forgotten it; I remember it very well. Republicans repeat it often.
This is NOT about fifty or sixty different issues or tasks that congress needs to get done in this session. It's about Republicans and tRump enacting this extreme agenda and remaking the government in a way that makes Mr. Norquist and Steve Bannon smile. In a way that would make Ayn Rand proud.
This explains why tRump, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan already have in place proposed legislation to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid even though all three of them said during the election that they'd NEVER TOUCH THOSE PROGRAMS! They were lying. They lie all the time. Drastic cuts to those programs have been a part of the conservative agenda for over 30 years and they've said so hundreds of times!
People who don't understand the larger issues involved here can "both sides" this all day and all night, but this is really about the extreme tRump/Repug agenda to gut all programs that help individual Americans so rich people and corps can pay little or no taxes.
Trump and his trumper minions get an expanded military that was already way bigger and badder than what we actually need to defend us and our NATO allies, their fucking wall that's mostly about symbolism, constant "incentives" and tax breaks (i.e. giveaways) for major corps that are already showing record profits, uber-low taxes for people in the upper brackets and NO FUNDING AT ALL for things that benefit ordinary Americans or people who are actually struggling.
So it's about renewing DACA, funding the government and much, much more. If this wasn't clear to you, you've bought all the Repug talking points and you have no idea what's actually going on.
It's urgent that Americans who care about the direction of our country see that each fight in Washington is not a separate "thing" but that there are big-picture reasons why these battles are going on right now in the age of tRump.
If you'd like to know more about DACA and why the Dreamers and so many other Americans want so urgently to have The Dream Act reauthorized, click here.
If Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are going to be there for folks who'll be needing them in the next 20 to 30 years, we've got to raise holy hell over Republican attempts to gut them. For more on how to safeguard these vital programs while the current regime is trying to drastically curtail or privatize them, follow this link.
"Bulldog Ben" Basile
Note: as you probably know, the government did indeed shut down three days after I wrote this and posted it here. And we'll be right back at the edge of the abyss in a few short days.
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