Trump Team Moves Forward With Plans to Build the Wall, But…

C’mon… Did you really swallow all the bunk about Mexico paying for that border wall?

According to CNN:

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has signaled to congressional Republican leaders that the President-elect’s preference is to fund the border wall through the appropriations process as soon as April, according to House Republican officials.

The move would break a key campaign promise when Trump repeatedly said he would force Mexico to pay for the construction of the wall along the border, though in October, Trump suggested for the first time that Mexico would reimburse the US for the cost of the wall.

Citing a 2006, Bush-era law, Trump’s team says it will have the authority to build the wall, but they lack the funding, so they’ve expressed that they would like to pay for it through the funding bill.

“It was not done in the Obama administration, so by funding the authorization that’s already happened a decade ago, we could start the process of meeting Mr. Trump’s campaign pledge to secure the border,” Indiana Republican Rep. Luke Messer said on Thursday.

Messer admitted it’s “big dollars, but it’s a question of priorities.” He pointed to a border security bill that Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul proposed last year that cost roughly $10 billion.

Except his campaign pledge was to have Mexico pay for the wall. Now, he’s proudly proposing to tack the cost onto the already bowed backs of the American taxpayers.

If Mexico refuses to pay for the wall, the GOP could add billions of dollars into the spending bill that needs to pass by April 28 to keep the government open. But doing so would force a showdown with Senate Democrats and potentially threaten a government shutdown.

No decisions have been made, GOP sources said.

In 2006, Senators Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Barack Obama all agreed with and voted for the bill, so Republicans feel that they should agree to funding the efforts, now.

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House leadership, declined to say Thursday if Congress would pay for the wall.

“We want President Trump to have all the tools he needs to build the wall,” Scalise said. “We’re in talks with him on the details of it as they’re still putting together their team. We still got a few months before there’s another funding bill that’s going to move. We’re going to work with him to make sure we can get it done. We want to build a wall. He wants to build a wall.”

And Mexico will not be paying for that wall.

You will.

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