DHS has declared the US/Mexico border more secure than ever (thanks, Obama), but that hasn’t stopped Donald Trump from insisting that we still need a racist wall that Mexico will never, ever fucking pay for. Basically the only thing as unpopular as Trump and Trumpcare are hemorrhoids and the wall itself, a fact captured by USA Today in a recent survey of 534 members finding that barely 24 percent of congressional Republicans outright endorse funding this border monstrosity (though hemorrhoids wasn’t polled). “Only 69 of the 292 Republicans on Capitol Hill said ‘yes,’” USA Today found. “Among the rest, three Republicans said they oppose the money, several evaded a direct answer, and the rest simply refused to respond to the question”:
The House approved $1.6 billion in startup funding as part of a broad national security spending package in July that included billions $658 billion for the Defense Department and $78 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The wall funding was tacked on to the bill at the last minute, and the legislation passed the House with the support of only five Democrats. Five Republicans voted against the bill.
The Senate has not yet taken up the measure, and Congress has since passed a temporary spending bill to keep the government running for the next few months. That puts off until December a battle over the wall and other Trump spending priorities.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., indicated last week that they had struck a deal with Trump to move legislation offering safe harbor for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and that the bill would not include funding for Trump's wall.
“The overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans refused to take a stance on the wall funding when asked by USA TODAY. Most simply declined to participate in the survey or refused to even respond to queries.” Democrats, though, “were much easier to get on the record. Of the 240 Democrats in Congress, 133 answered the USA TODAY survey and nearly every one was a decisive “no.” For Democrats, Trump's wall—one of the defining themes of his campaign—was always an overly simplistic answer to the complex problem of immigration as well as an insult to Mexico and Latino Americans.”
“Nearly” is good but doesn’t take into account the five Democrats—Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop, Florida Rep. Charlie Crist, New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and Arizona Reps. Tom O’Halleran and Kyrsten Sinema—who did vote for border wall funding this past summer. This should be a no-brainer. Walls don’t work, border residents don’t want it, and all Democrats should oppose this racist monument to hate, one that will come at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer when it’s Houston and Miami we should be rebuilding, not Trump’s ego.