Yesterday, this column blasted Democrats for being responsible for shutting down the government and forcing Americans to wait on five-hour lines to make their flights at the airport. We also blasted the leftist media that refused to hold the Democrats accountable for the shutdown that they caused.
But now, just a day later, we have to call out President Trump for blocking what appeared to be a way out of this mess.
Republicans were going to get the Democrats to finally vote for all of the funding within Homeland Security, except for ICE funding. This would’ve been unacceptable, since ICE must be funded to do its job. But the GOP insisted that they would, through the reconciliation process, need only 50 votes and not allow the Democrats to block it through the filibuster.
However, when the Senate Majority Leader broached the plan to the president, Trump quashed it, claiming that now the DHS funding had to be tied to — get this — the SAVE America Voting Act.
Don’t get us wrong, we are all for the SAVE Act and requiring proof of citizenship at registration and photo ID at the polling booth, but that has nothing to do with funding DHS. Trump has muddied the waters, and now the attention has to be focused on his intransigence.
The Democrats started this shutdown and fostered misery upon American travelers for the past month. They deserve to be pilloried for it. Unfortunately, their allies in the media gave them cover for failing to call them out on it, thereby confusing the public as to who was utterly responsible for causing the shutdown to be prolonged because the public didn’t know who to blame.
Now that we finally have a deal that’s within reach, Trump is gumming up the works. Enough! Get this funding done and stop torturing TSA workers and the traveling public.