Give Trump and his Republicans the money for the wall?

[gulliver]

Trump and McConnell would probably faint. They are both counting on a Dem filibuster to save them. They know the wall is nuts. They don't want the bill to pass the Senate. I honestly think they know it would destroy the Republican Party.

What if Dems said, "We can't let Trump and his Republicans hold the country hostage over their ridiculous wall. We won't filibuster...not because the wall is a good idea though. It's terrible."

[Squinch]

1. No. Not ever. SOMEONE has to act sanely!

[gulliver]

2. Giving Republicans the rope they need to hang themselves isn't necessarily insane.

[Recursion]

3. You can't do anything that lets him frame it as a "victory"

Offering it as a concession during an earlier negotiation would have worked (it's a stupid money pit, but we have plenty of those); doing it now in response to a temper tantrum would be catastrophic.

[gulliver]

6. It would be a poison pill type of victory for them. A very deadly poison pill.

The wall is great for Republicans, but only if it doesn't get funding. If it gets funding, especially if it gets funding by holding the country hostage to a government shutdown and by party line votes, the wall will clobber the Republicans over the next two years. It's an inherently crazy, impossible idea. The wall will never be built. Republicans will be in the position of having approved $5.7B of spending on a monument to Republican stupidity and cynicism.

The current way things are likely to play out gives the Republicans a victory. McConnell will gratefully allow the Dem filibuster to block the wall bill. Then, after shutting down the government for a week or two, Republicans will give in. Their base will see that they fought for the wall. Republicans will then use the wall in 2020.

[WeekiWater]

7. This isn't rope. It's irresponsible governance, environmentally irresponsible,

will enable and increase racism, and an embarrassment.

Trump not getting the wall is what we need. His base is furious at him that the great negotiator still hasn't been able to procure the cornerstone of his campaign.

[gulliver]

10. It's Trump and his base that most need to be given the rope.

Trump's base will have no problem blaming Dems for not getting their wall. That's what the whole current Kabuki (McConnell is "proud to vote for it" ) is all about.

I happen to agree with everything you say about the wall. It is irresponsible, racist, and an embarrassment. But it will never be built. Lawsuits from Texas landowners alone will spring up the second the planning starts.

[WeekiWater]

14. I do like your last sentence.

It’s something I have been saying for a long time. I don’t like your approach. You want to give it to them and call it rope. I want to give it to them for a fast track pathway to citizenship. You put no bargaining chips on the table. We can get a lot more than rope if we give it to them in a comprehensive immigration package. Not a funding bill.

[A DAY IN THE LIFE]

4. Dems should vote absent or abstain

I actually want them to give Individual 1 his money for the wall. By 2020 all that will be done is planning, land aquisition, surveying ... No wall will be built. It is going to be a money pit and a failure. And someone should keep a watch on the contractors and where the money actually goes. Require union membership and minority subcontracting.

[Freethinker65]

5. Give a giant check in a televised ceremony to Trump and watch as he uses it as his new slush fund

[rockfordfile]

8. No

This is one of the ideas you would at red state.

[Claritie Pixie]

9. NO - and in the words of Sen. Coons - I will not be bullied.

[Amishman]

11. Trade modest wall funding for big defense cuts

The wall isn't going to work anyway, so make them gut the military industrial complex to get it.

Yes, Trump will be able to claim a win, but he is doomed either way.

[SWBTATTReg]

12. History is full of walls that didn't work. nt

[VOX]

13. Fixed fortifications (including walls) are all monuments to mankind's stupidity.

They never stopped a goddamned thing. WWII French Maginot Line, anyone?

[Adrahil]

15. Yeah.... no.

There is no positive in that for us. Trump will cast it as a victory... details be damned.