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At The American Spectator, Dov Fischer asks President Trump to keep the government closed for two years if that’s what it takes to get the funding he’s requesting for the wall on the southern border. Fischer writes (abridged):
I don’t know about you, but I am enjoying the 25% Government shutdown. I really am. This is the closest we ever may come to demonstrating how much of our Government is wasteful, unnecessary, duplicative, and pointless. As but one example — only from the 25% now shut down — we simply do not need a federal Department of Education. States and municipalities can and should run education at the local level. Under conservatives, a federal Education Department — at best — does nothing that justifies its existence; under liberals, it works to destroy civil rights and the national culture.
We do need the military to protect us from threats overseas. We need an agency to collect tax, if tax we must pay. We need airport security on the ground (like TSA) and in the sky (like air traffic controllers). We need the post office. We need honest federal judges and courts and the staff that enable them to administer justice. But we do not need a great many of the agencies, departments, nor a great many of the 800,000 meanwhile-furloughed government workers.
Finally, finally, finally — we have a President on the Republican side of the aisle who is standing for something.
But Republicans? They cave, and they cave. Nixon imposed wage and price controls, appointed liberal judges all the way to the Supreme Court, and took America off the gold standard. Bush I promised “no new taxes.” They always cave. Frankly, before Rush and Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham raced into the void, President Trump was about to cave on the Wall. It had not been all that long ago that he told us he needed $25 billion for the Wall. Then he was down to $5 billion. Then it was $1.6 billion for border control and no Wall. But the Talk Radio and Digital Media cavalry arrived just in time — we would like to think that voices like ours were heard, too — and Trump returned to being Trump. He stiffened his resolve, and he closed down the Government.
Mr. President, keep it closed. Keep it closed for the next two years if you have to. If you do not get that $5 billion for that Wall, just keep it closed.
Here is how this all will play out if the President truly holds like a stonewall — and it is not clear whether he will. But if he really holds firm on this, then either (i) the Democrats will find a round-about way to give him the Wall (which they are welcome to call: screen, barricade, fortification, barrier, hurdle, rampart, façade, mechitzah, fence, partition, or gate) or (ii) they won’t. Again, this requires that he keep the Government at least 25% closed for the next two years, if need be. If they give it to him, he gets reelected gigantically in 2020 because, aside from partisans, Americans in the center — the Independents — love a President who actually gets things done after bloviating and promising during campaign season.
Read more here.
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