On October 22, 2018 Bradley Byrne (R-AL) introduced legislation designed to pass $25B in border wall funding via the reconciliation process (same as ACA was passed). byrne.house.gov/… There was never a vote in the House, and the bill never went anywhere. Why?
I understand the obvious answer to this question is “It was never about a wall”, or “They didn’t want to (couldn’t) pass unpopular wall funding right before the election.” These are my best guesses for why this path didn’t go anywhere, but why aren’t Democrats bringing this up?
Lord Dampnut’s favorite excuse is that he couldn’t get his wall because he needed 60 Senate votes. That is an idiotic talking point, because the American people have only spoken more clearly that they don’t want a wall in the most recent elections. If his goal was to shut down the government to get a wall, the logical time to do it was in 2017, when his party was in control and his mandate was biggest.
But more to the point, if the GOP wanted a wall, they could have passed it WITH 0 DEMOCRAT VOTES. THey could have used the reconciliation procedure and passed the funding with 50% + 1. The GOP had the votes. They always did, but they didn’t use them. Obviously it’s because that would have been a tough vote, and members of the GOP would likely have defected.
So why isn’t this part of the discussion? When Trump says the Democrats obstructed the wall, why don’t people point out the GOP had the votes to pass it for 2 years and did nothing until the 11th hour? I understand Trump voters are too dumb to understand this, but I haven’t heard this talking point from Democrats or the press, and I can’t figure out why not.