Trump’s new plan to raid an additional $7.2 billion in taxpayer money allotted to the military and narcotics interdiction in order to fund his border wall obsession sets up another moment of truth for Republicans, as Congress is planning on more votes attempting to hold Trump accountable on the subject.
Last fall, after Trump raided $3.6 billion from military projects based on the fake national emergency, 54 Senators voted to terminate the emergency declaration and stood up up for the Constitution’s separation of powers and for military families and constituents in their home states. Noticeably absent from that list: Senators Martha McSally (R-AZ), Cory Gardner (R-CO), David Perdue (R-GA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-TX), most of whom had home state military projects directly imperiled by Trump’s raid but sided with Trump (see more on last fall’s vote, including details about the America’s Voice online ads targeting the above Senators here).
The following is a statement from Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice:
Here they go again. Republican Senators will once again have a chance to show if they are on-board with another brazen Trump raid on military funding to advance his xenophobic political obsession with a border wall. Let’s remember the exact damage done to our military, veterans and their families the last time. GOP Senators let Trump steal military construction projects including schools, facilities and clinics from their respective states. We fear Senators McSally, Gardner, Perdue, Ernst, McConnell and Tillis haven’t grown a backbone since the last vote and Trump is counting on their silence as money is syphoned from their states. Trump envisions the border wall as a giant billboard to his re-election and every single Republican who sides with him on these upcoming votes will own Trump’s unlawful raid of military funding, his trampling on the will of Congress, the separation of powers, and Trump’s accompanying efforts to seize private landowners’ property along the border. These Senators are letting it happen under their watch and showing that they care more about their Dear Leader Trump than their home state constituents or the Constitution.
Check out the ads run by America’s Voice last October targeting key Republican Senators on their votes regarding Trump’s emergency declaration and raiding of military budgets.
