The partial federal government shutdown has become very entertaining the last two days. This could go on for a while.
Yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent President Donald Trump a letter asking him to consider rescheduling the annual State of the Union address. Pelosi had already invited Trump to address a joint session of congress for January 29. Her letter, which didn’t revoke the invitation, merely suggested that the president either agree to a later date once the entire federal government has been re-opened or just send a courier to deliver the speech in writing.
Before we get into this, I have said for nearly 20 years that every president should just send a courier for the annual State of the Union. No matter who is president the speech has devolved into a partisan clapping display where the president is constantly interrupted by applause. The formula is simple; when the president says something about how great America is then everyone claps for a minute, and when the president says something about how great our veterans are then everyone stands and claps, and when the president says something about a specific policy then only his party claps and usually to a standing ovation. It’s ridiculous and it makes for bad TV. I usually watch a NBA game and then just read the transcript of the speech the next day [pause for ovation].
But no modern day president is likely to send a courier. The speech is used as one of many incumbency advantages.
A primetime speech on all the major networks is the accepted practice. It has become precedent, a precedent that liberals treat like Roe v. Wade, or is that a poor example? Anyways, the speech is expected to happen, so Pelosi’s letter was an inappropriate breach of her duty as Speaker. Yes, I’m going to play the what-if-the-parties-in-this-case-were-reversed card. Had Paul Ryan asked the telegenic Barack Obama to delay a primetime speech, then the liberal media would have flipped out.
What Pelosi did was especially troubling because she lied about the reason for delaying the speech. And yes it was a lie. Pelosi claimed that security services have been “hamstrung” because of the partial shutdown. This is blatantly false and therefore a lie. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen responded to Pelosi’s false claim by tweeting, “The Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union.” The Daily Caller wrote an article that included this important quote from the Secret Service; “The Secret Service was never contacted by congressional leadership regarding our security plan or the Secret Service’s ability to carry it out.” So Pelosi lied. She didn’t have direct (or credible) information from the security services in charge of handling security but chose to speak for them anyway.
The real reason for her request must be her overall hatred of Trump. As House Speaker, Pelosi would have to sit behind Trump during the whole speech while Trump, likely, would have lambasted her for failing to offer adequate funds for border security. Giving Trump a platform to criticize Pelosi while she had to stay silent could potentially help Trump and hurt Pelosi. Remember now, Pelosi said on camera, “not one dollar for the wall.” Now who is willing to compromise here? Who is willing to negotiate? “Not one dollar” is the very definition of a hardline, uncompromising position. Maybe she’s scared of the exposure the speech would put on her and the issue of border security.
Her request for a delay of the State of the Union doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. Security will be fine. The annual speech is something that has been planned for a while. Pelosi truly owes the Secret Service an apology for trying to use them as a political chess piece.
Today we learned Trump’s response to Pelosi’s lie. Trump canceled an overseas flight for Pelosi and a delegation of congressional Democrats, as they were on their way to the airport. Pelosi and her friends were set to fly on a military aircraft and as commander in chief, Trump makes the call on whether that allocation of military resources is appropriate or not. Not citing security concerns, Trump simply suggested that Pelosi stay in town to negotiate the re-opening of the entire federal government. Take that.
One could argue that this retaliatory move is a well-play slight of the Speaker and her team. Or you could argue that allowing the trip would highlight how much spending is stilling being allocated during this oh-no-the-sky-is-falling shutdown that Democrats are up in arms about.
I’ll phrase it as this; it’s about priorities.
First off, we have a State Department to represent our nation’s interests overseas and we never need the minority party to undermine our executive branch in talks to foreign diplomats. Pelosi and her lackeys would have, undoubtingly, used the trip to talk trash about Trump. No question about that. So this trip should not have happened just on that account.
But more specifically, right now the argument should be about priorities. If Pelosi and congressional Democrats leave the country for seven days, then that means the partial shutdown is guaranteed to last for seven more days. Is that ok? Some say yes and point out the silliness of having non-existential workers in the first place. But the Democrat leadership is saying that one more minute is too long. They are flipping out. Clearly, a seven day trip would’ve been used by Democrats to run up the total number of days of the shutdown for use in negative messaging about Trump and congressional Republicans.
If House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is serious about ending the partial federal government shutdown then she would not have even considered leaving the country for seven days. President Donald Trump is right to cancel her trip on a military aircraft. Of course, this whole mess is here because the nature of congress is to never pass a budget and just rely on constantly debating Continuing Resolutions and both parties are to blame for that. Any other government/organization needs a budget to operate and a budget for the federal government needs to include adequate funds for border security. Until then, we will be stuck in a cycle of one-upmanship between the Speaker and the president. Well Democrats, I bet this president can play that game all the way though a successful re-election campaign in 2020. This could last a while.
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