Will Trump Shut Down The Government Again-- Or Rescue Himself By Stealing Money From California And Puerto Rico?

UPDATE: Trump caves again-- won't shut down the government. Earlier this morning, beaten like a dog, Trump was reported by CNN to be preparing to sign the bill to keep the government open without any money for his foolish vanity-wall. The deal falls far short of all his demands but he's knows he's been beaten and has no choice, despite the rantings and ravings of Ann Coulter. CNN also reported that "Even as lawmakers haggled over details of their agreement, the White House had been planning behind the scenes to secure the funds for the wall unilaterally. The White House says Trump is continuing to weigh his options to fund a border wall, which still include taking executive action to secure funding for a wall. It's not clear which combination of actions the President might use, and the topic has been under debate for weeks."

Audrey Denney, a progressive congressional candidate in northeast California (CA-01) made a video Trump ought to watch before he goes on spouting his ignorance about Climate Change and before he tries stealing money Congress allocated for hurricane disaster relief in Puerto Rico and wild fire relief in California to build his vanity-wall. When Trump started threatening to take away the crucial money, the Republican rubber stamp who represents the most burned part of the state, Doug LaMalfa, Audrey's opponent, said he trusts Trump to do the right thing. Audrey doesn't and she was incensed by Trump's comments which she said "make it clear that he does not have a grasp on the science of climate change, the complexities of forest ecosystems, or the basics of fire prevention. Last November we were experiencing weather patterns and dryness levels that mirrored peak fire season (July). High winds and these extraordinarily dry conditions led to a creating the most devastating fire in California’s history. Our changing climate will continue to threaten lives and property in Northern California and across our country. Many of California’s forests are overgrown and need to be restored to healthy forested ecosystems. It is complex and important work that must be done. However, nearly 60% of the forests in California are under federal control-- it is the federal government who has chosen to divert resources away from forest management-- not California. As we look ahead to increased risks for people who live in urban-wildland interface areas, we need to devote resources to proper community planning, emergency preparedness, and innovative solutions for minimizing risks. We need leaders that understand the complexity, nuance, and science surrounding these issues." (Trump's idea of climate change has to do with deriding people who talk about Global Warming by pointing out heavy snows.)

On Monday, writing for Politico, Nancy Cook and Eliana Johnson reported that the Regime is firming up plans to shift federal dollars allocated by Congress for unrelated purposes build his wall. Clearly attorneys working on this unconstitutional endeavor should be disbarred down the road. For now, though, this planned executive order, which Mulvaney referred to on Meet The Press last Sunday, will be Trump's response to the bipartisan compromise Congress offered him to solve the impasse. "The emerging consensus among acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and top budget officials," according to Politico "is to shift money from two Army Corps of Engineers’ flood control projects in Northern California, as well as from disaster relief funds intended for California and Puerto Rico. The plan will also tap unspent Department of Defense funds for military construction, like family housing or infrastructure for military bases, according to three sources familiar with the negotiations."

Part of Ted Lieu's district, Malibu, also suffered severe wild fire damage. His reaction to Trump's threats was very much in line with what all the California Democrats had to say. "'Let's hurt military families and disaster victims,' said no one ever. Trump's latest scheme to raid federal funds designated for military construction projects and disaster relief in order to pay for his pointless border wall is not just irresponsible, but likely unconstitutional. Congress has the power of the purse and decides how federal dollars are spent. While it is true the executive often has a fair amount of discretion in how federal money is allocated, the President does not have the power to simply ignore the will of Congress and redirect funding as he sees fit. So to summarize, Trump is planning to steal from military families and disaster victims in order to pay for a pointless wall that he promised Mexico would pay for-- it's not the dumbest idea I've ever heard, but it is pretty darn close."

Mark DeSaulnier's congressional district (especially Antioch, Pittsburg and Bay Point) is immediately to the south of some of the hardest hit areas of the fire zone. Earlier today he told me that "Investing in disaster prevention and recovery is proven to be effective in the long run, both at reducing damage to life and property from disasters and economically. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there is no analysis that suggests that President Trump’s border wall would be worth a single penny we invest in it. We should go where the facts lead us, not the President’s political biases."

Alan Grayson, whose old district in the Orlando Metro has one of the largest Puerto Rican populations of any on the mainland. "Trump," he told me this morning "seems to think that highly absorbent paper towels are the best form of hurricane recovery. But honestly, the Democrats deserve some of the blame, because they could have prevented it. There have been something like 20 appropriations bills passed since Trump took office. How hard would it have been to offer an amendment in at least one of them, saying no diversion of funds for a wall?"

But the strategy is far from a cure-all for a president with no good options, and it has already sparked debate within the White House. Moving funds by executive order is virtually certain to draw instant court challenges, with opponents, including some powerful members of Congress, arguing the president is encroaching on the legislative branch’s constitutional power to appropriate funds.

Some Trump officials, including those aligned with senior adviser Stephen Miller, have argued internally that the gambit might be even more vulnerable to court challenges than a national emergency declaration. And in a sign of the political fallout, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee has argued that tapping military construction money would hurt the armed forces’ potential readiness.

Until now, Trump officials had focused on the drawbacks of a possible national emergency declaration. But as the alternative option of moving money by executive order has come into clearer relief ahead of a Feb. 15 deadline for a spending deal with Congress that could avert a new government shutdown, so have the risks of that alternative option.

“It will create a firestorm, once you start taking money that congressmen think is in their districts,” said Jim Dyer, a former staff director for the House Appropriations Committee. “You will cause yourself a problem if that money was directed away from any type of project or activity because I guarantee it has some constituency on Capitol Hill.”

Inside the White House, the president’s lawyers have for weeks grappled with the question of how to defend Trump should he choose to assert broad executive powers to build the wall. While the phrase “national emergency” has an extreme ring, some administration attorneys note that it is a well-established power under a 1976 law that has been invoked 58 times by past presidents. They call it uncontroversial that presidents have broad discretion to declare a national emergencies and similarly broad authority to deal with them.

“President is on sound legal ground to declare a National Emergency... this is hardly unprecedented,” Trump tweeted on Sunday, quoting comments by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA)

Like LaMalfa, McClintock is taking his political life in his hands by backing Trump on this. His region will also be a loser and independent voters in Truckee, Auburn, Placerville, Lincoln, Roseville and in the suburbs north of Sacramento. McClintock's district also includes Yosemite, the Stanislaus National Forest, the John Muir Wilderness, the Sierra National Forest and the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Trump won the R+10 district with 54% of the vote and last year McClintock under-performed his previous wins, beating under-funded Democrat Jessica Morse 184,401 (54.1%) to 156,253 (45.9%), with very close margins in the 2 biggest counties, Placer and El Dorado. In another wave election-- which looks likely-- Trump on the top of the ticket will be deadly for both LaMalfa and McClintock.

This morning, Audrey Denney told us that her "home county was ravaged by the most deadly and destructive wildfire in California’s history. We are still reeling from the effects of the fire. Around 30,000 people have been displaced. Many residents have moved away permanently because there is no available housing to accommodate them. We are mourning the loss of 85 of our community members.  Residents are grappling every day with how to piece their lives back together when everything they had was taken away traumatically and instantly. Homeowners are grappling with whether or not to rebuild, where to live in the coming years, and wondering how they will ever get fire insurance again. Renters across our county, myself included, are having to move in with friends because there are no rentals available and the pre-fire housing crisis in Butte County is exponentially worse now." She continued, passionately:

Three weeks after the fire I had the privilege of leading a delegation of Camp Fire survivors to D.C. to lobby for the federal aid we need to help our broken communities recover. I got to watch as the heroic nurses from Feather River hospital told their story of evacuating the most vulnerable to safety before being trapped in the flames and nearly perishing. The representatives and senators who heard the testimonies of those heroes were moved with empathy for the loss and struggle in our county. My question is this: Where is our President’s empathy?  How can his conscience allow him to use the citizens of Butte County as pawns in his political war? The lives and livelihoods of Americans must come before his partisan political games. Recovering from this disaster is going to take billions of dollars and many years-- we need help-- and we need leaders who will fight for us.

The recovery of our communities is entirely dependent on receiving this Federal disaster funding. This is not the time for the President to cause more uncertainty while we try and move forward. This is not the time for our Congressman Doug LaMalfa to be content to stand by idly while his constituents are further harmed and traumatized by these political games.

Blue America has an ActBlue page specifically designed to send contributions, directly, to progressive Democrats running in the Golden State. Last year, conservative establishment-oriented Democrats with big money connections moved in rapidly to make headway in crowded California primaries. The Democrats flipped 7 seats, but-- and it's a big but-- only one, Mike Levin, is showing any kind of consistent support for the progressive values they all ran on. Levin has signed on as a co-sponsor of Medicare-For-All and the Green New Deal resolution. He's the only California freshman who has. Meanwhile Gil Cisneros-- who never stopped vowing he was a progressive-- joined the Wall Street-owned New Dems, as did Harley Rouda, Josh Harder and Katie Hill. Worse yet, many who pledged over and over and over to chew PAC money-- watch Cisneros here-- are now scooping up the slimiest sewer money in DC hand-over-first, counting on their constituents being to stupid or preoccupied to notice. That's why it's so important to back-- and back early-- dedicated across-the-board, working class progressives like Audrey Denney. Please consider tapping on the thermometer on the right and chipping in what you can. $20.20 would be nice, for example. But $5 and $10 contributions are what power these grassroots campaigns.

Meanwhile, in crazy-land Trump's base hates the compromise. Coukter called it the "Yellow New Deal" and Hannity called it "garbage" and threatened Republicans who back it.