by Micah J. Fleck
TLR previously reported that Donald Trump might in fact switch to a fence rather than a wall after meeting with some lobby groups upon his election late last year. But apparently, he has decided to go through with building his “big wall” after all. But there is a bit of a catch.
According to New York Daily News, there have been numerous reports of Trump switching the burden for financing the wall from “Mexico” (as he broadly implicated his entire campaign so monolithically) to you and me, the American taxpayer:
Trump representatives have told GOP lawmakers in private meetings that they hope to use a Bush-era law that would allow the Republican-led Congress to use tax dollars to foot a border wall, according to multiple reports.
Since Congress would have nowhere near enough money, Trump transition officials have reportedly told Republicans that they’d like to secure funding by folding the wall into a must-pass spending bill.
“If tied to the rest of government funding, it’s much harder for the Democrats to stop, and by the way, I think it’s much harder for Democrats to vote against it if what you’re doing is authorizing funding for an existing law,” Indiana Republican Rep. Luke Messer told reporters after learning of the proposal.
This really shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention and realizes that Trump was s showman and not actually practical with such of his campaign promises (there are good and bad implications to this), but it should infuriate the most die-hard true believers of Trumpism. Will it? That likely depends on how much news coverage this latest bit of info will get.