Well, this is a pretty kettle of fish. It seems that his project is not loved by everyone. And the cost is prohibitive. They’re not going to be able to push something through due to unified opposition. The opposition has some surprises in it. Well, surprises to us. But that one billion is circling the drain. There’s a good chance we can expect an explosion from Trump in the near future. With gratitude to Raw Story:
Politico reported late Tuesday that the ballroom is “on the brink of being ejected” from the GOP’s immigration legislation.
The White House ballroom project has been touted as a $400 million privately funded build, though Republicans have also pushed a separate $1 billion taxpayer-funded security request tied to the broader East Wing modernization project that includes the ballroom.
On the brink? Push that sucker overboard. That’s purely special sauce. Taxpayers do NOT want the damn ballroom, and we do NOT want to pay for it. He can take his one billion wish and shove it up his arse. We all know the Democrats are firmly against it, and some Republicans have already broken ranks to say no. This absolutely does not need to go through, no matter how much Trump and his sycophants bluster and bloviate and rage.
“Four Republican senators have raised public objections to spending taxpayer money on the project, possibly enough to kill it, given the broad Democratic opposition.
A larger group of Republicans is privately opposed to the funding, according to five people granted anonymity to disclose internal deliberations,” the report said.
The report comes after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), fresh off a high-profile primary loss, said he would not vote in favor of funding the ballroom.
“They don’t have a bid, they don’t have engineering, they don’t have architecture. …They just kind of made that number up,” he said. “So, from what I know now, I will not be voting for the ballroom fund.”
Good for him. Let’s hope he and Massie get together and blow things up, figuratively speaking, before their terms end. Trump primaried them. They no longer have anything to lose. And it’s certainly helpful that other Republicans have seen the writing on the wall. And think about this – if Trump manages to scam taxpayer dollars once, he’ll try to do it again until we have to pay for the whole damn thing. He’ll deliberately overrun costs.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have also dumped cold water on the idea, along with outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).
“One billion in ballroom funding is just not going to fly, right? It’s just not going to fly,” Murkowski said.
The crumbling support follows a Senate parliamentarian ruling Saturday night that GOP leaders couldn’t include the $1 billion in the reconciliation bill under chamber rules. The procedural verdict infuriated Trump and prompted him to privately demand that Senate Majority Leader John Thune fire parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. Thune refused.
Well, well, well. Thune has a spine after all. We were wondering about that. How helpful of him to pull it out of storage, dust it off, and put it where it belonged. We have Republicans pushing back. Pardon me whilst I faint and get revived. There’s still a problem. How long will these spines last?
See you soon!
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