Home»Politics»Senate Votes To Block Trump’s Emergency Declaration To Fund Southern Wall – Trump Vows Veto

Senate Votes To Block Trump’s Emergency Declaration To Fund Southern Wall – Trump Vows Veto

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On Thursday, the US Senate voted 59-41 in favor of blocking President Donald Trump’s declaration of funding the southern border wall as a national emergency.  However, Trump voiced his opposition in a one word tweet, “Veto.”

The border wall has been a campaign promise, despite the fact that Congress has not allocated funds for it per the Constitution, and despite the fact that the federal government does not own the land on which the border wall would be built, again, per the Consitution.

However, that did not stop Senate Democrats and some Republicans from voting against what is clearly an unconstitutional declaration of a “national emergency” by the president to build the wall.

Still, Trump responded with a single word tweet, “Veto!”

Trump promised the veto ahead of the vote.

“A big National Emergency vote today by The United States Senate on Border Security & the Wall (which is already under major construction). I am prepared to veto, if necessary. The Southern Border is a National Security and Humanitarian Nightmare, but it can be easily fixed!” he tweeted on Thursday.

Trump, being confident that the Senate does not have the votes to overturn his veto claimed the vote was a “border security vote.”

But the question is whether or not his actions are constitutional.

FT reports:

The vote on Thursday pit Mr Trump against some of the most prominent members of his own party and will force him to issue the first veto of his presidency if he wants to proceed with taking money from other federal agencies to fund wall construction.

In addition to some Senate Republicans who have bucked Mr Trump in the past like Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Thursday’s 59 to 41 vote saw a wider array of party stalwarts turn against the president, including Utah’s Mitt Romney.

In total, 12 Republicans voted for the measure, including Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lamar Alexander.

Frankly, if Mike Lee is voting against you, you are probably on really bad constitutional grounds, and I agree with those that opposed Trump on his declaration of a national emergency and trying to go around the Constitution regarding money for a wall.

The following Republicans joined Democrats to vote against Trump’s national emergency declaration and allocation of funds to build a wall on our southern border.

  • Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)
  • Roy Blunt (Mo.)
  • Susan Collins (Me.)
  • Mike Lee (Utah)
  • Jerry Moran (Kan.)
  • Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
  • Rand Paul (Ky.)
  • Rob Portman (Ohio)
  • Mitt Romney (Utah)
  • Marco Rubio (Fla.)
  • Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.)
  • Roger Wicker (Miss.)

While I don’t care for many who are clearly RINOs in the pack, you can’t help but recognize people like Rand Paul and Mike Lee who have taken unpopular stands when it comes to the Constitution.

I’ll remind people who might claim I’m “anti-Trump” or whatever, this is a vote about what is constitutional, not whether one bows to a political idol.

When asked whether there would be consequences for Republicans who went after him for opposing him on his usurpation, Trump would not respond, but a White House spokesperson did say that he would not forget senators who opposed him that might ask him to attend their fundraisers or help them in any way.

So be it.  The law is the law, and there is no authorization in our Constitution for the president to engage in this.  If President Trump wanted to follow the Constitution, he should eliminate every single welfare benefit to any and all non-citizens.  In fact, if he was constitutional, he would eliminate every welfare benefit even to American citizens, but as you can see, no matter the party in the White House, it’s the people, the Constitution and our rights and money that is lost.

As even talk show host Rush Limbaugh declared on Thursday:

“Talks within the GOP conference to avoid an embarrassing rebuke for Trump collapsed Wednesday, and Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) joined four fellow Republican senators who have already said they will back the measure.”

Folks, it isn’t a big deal in the big scheme. You know why? Because they don’t have enough votes to override Trump’s upcoming veto of this. I saw Romney on TV, Romney was talking, “I am really worried that passing this will give future Democrat presidents an opportunity to behave outside the Constitution, and I say we’re –” you ever heard of Barack Obama? And the Republicans didn’t do anything to stop him when he did it.

You know, presidents are gonna take power any time they can get it. And if nobody’s gonna stand up to ’em like nobody stood up to Obama, then they’re gonna get away with it. The battle for power between the executive branch and the legislative is legion. It’s designed in the Constitution, separation of powers. We are supposed be distracted by this argument over power.

The founders of this country didn’t want this government passing laws every day. The more they could be tied up arguing with each other over who’s got the power to do this, the better. The real problem in our country is not that. The real problem in our country is how much power Congress has willingly given away to bureaucratic agencies in the executive branch, the quote, unquote bureaucracy or the administrative state.

And I’ll tell you the real irony about that is the president is in charge of the administrative state. The president is in charge of all of those bureaucratic agencies, but he’s got no control over ’em. They’re out of control. Congress has ceded so much power to regulatory agencies — the FDA, the EPA. I don’t need to waste time going through this again.

But the bottom is this is a bunch of Republicans who are taking positions here that they can campaign for reelection on, knowing full well the president’s gonna get his national declaration of emergency. You know why? ‘Cause they don’t have enough votes to override. He’s gonna veto this, and they can’t override the veto. So he’s gonna end up with his declaration of national emergency.

But you’re gonna have these Republican senators who are gonna be able to go back and campaign, “I voted against the expansion of presidential powers. I voted against presidents being able to violate the Constitution. You should reelect me because I –” that’s what they’re doing. Now, the media is portraying it as a rebuke of President Trump. And, look, there may be some of that.

OK, great, then Limbaugh goes on to try and make it political, which I grant some people will make it, but he made the case right there:  Congress has unconstitutionally given power to the president that he constitutionally does not possess.

So, what is wrong with anyone that opposes him, regardless of their motives?  I’ll tell you, a two-party system that gets you arguing over your party’s side rather than what the law that was written to protect the people, actually says.

Article posted with permission from Freedom Outpost


Tim Brown

Tim Brown is a Christian and lover of liberty, a husband to his "more precious than rubies" wife, father of 10 "mighty arrows" and jack of all trades. He lives in the US-Occupied State of South Carolina, is the Editor at SonsOfLibertyMedia.com, GunsInTheNews.com and TheWashingtonStandard.com. and SettingBrushfires.com; and also broadcasts on The Sons of Liberty radio weekdays at 6am EST and Saturdays at 8am EST. Follow Tim on Twitter. Also check him out on Gab, Minds, and USALife.
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