McConnell blocks bill to reopen most of government

[trouble13]

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Thank you for the warm welcome. I tried to respond to everything, but it came up too long, and I wanted to address this part the most. I posted a plan for fixing the border for someone else, and they immediately dismissed it because it didn't include a wall. I'll offer it up to you to see what you think:

Want a plan, try this on for size:

A drone with an above average camera hovering in one spot and spinning the camera around at regular intervals could cover something like 10 miles of border. So one could state that without a single foot of wall ever having been constructed, the 2000 mile border could be covered by 600 drones, 1200 people flying them day and night, and 1500 agents could cover the same territory that a wall would cover for way less money. I’ll even prove it for ya…

An entire fleet of top of the line drones would cost us something around 6M bucks. A top of the line spy drone will cost you somewhere around 10K. That times 600 would be 6M. That would be 3 drones per 10 mile segment of border. That would give each one time to charge and be worker on while one was airborne all day, every day. Hell, we could go so far as to double that cost and have plenty of extras for the just in case kinda days and situations. Total cost so far = 12M.

Paying someone 30 bucks an hour to fly one of these things would be pretty good pay, given the actual work being done. 30 bucks an hour times 1200 people would be just over 69M dollars. That would be enough people to cover shifts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and still account for vacations and other things. Total cost so far = 81M.

The average salary of a border patrol agent in Texas is 49000. There are a couple of districts where the pay is better that that. I’ll be generous and use the higher number of just under 57K. Making sure that there were 12000 agents (2 agent covering every 5 miles along the border would need 800 agents on shift all day every day) would have enough agents to work all day, every day with enough agents in reserve to cover any gaps in coverage that may come up at times. Cost to staff the border would come to 684M dollars. Total cost to secure the border at this point = 765M dollars.

Throw in 1600 70K dollar patrol vehicles, and with the added 112M dollars, we still haven’t gotten to a billion dollars to staff and vehicularly equip enough people to have a pair of officers every 5 miles along the border with aerial recon all day every day with no gaps in coverage.

Given the fact that the CBP budget was 14B dollars last year, they could literally QUADRUPLE the coverages I proposed and still come up short of the budget they used last year, to what I feel would actually be better results.

I have no objections to using drones and cameras to surveil the border. They are both useful and smart tools that should be incorporated.

What I'm struggling to understand is how you expect monitoring barrier free borders is going to prevent caravans of 1000s from gaining entry.

I dont understand why some people are so vehemently opposed to using physical barriers to impede illeagal crossings.

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[Bullseye]

I have no objections to using drones and cameras to surveil the border. They are both useful and smart tools that should be incorporated.

What I'm struggling to understand is how you expect monitoring barrier free borders is going to prevent caravans of 1000s from gaining entry.

I dont understand why some people are so vehemently opposed to using physical barriers to impede illeagal crossings.

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You're correct. The smart use of technology is an important facet of border security, but not the only facet. A drone can't swoop down and arrest illegals and there are a limited number of them.

 

[Nickyjo]

Democrats own not appropriating any funding for the wall

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Why should they fund the wall if they don’t want to? They were elected; Trump was elected. No reason to shut down the government.

 

[trouble13]

True, but they aren't required to do so either. At the very least, Mitch should be having votes on all these bills. That is HIS job. We all know why **** isn't gonna happen.

I think him not having a vote is a fair criticism. I made the same one about Reid. I get why they do it. They are providing political cover for senators on both sides by not forcing them to go on the record. I rather they hold a vote but neither side holds votes they dont like. I'm sure Pelosi is gonna sit on freedom caucus Bill's too.

Pelosi 8snt required to send Bill's to the Senate that include things that the potus wants and the potus isnt required to sign any bill he does not like.

The fact is that Congress would not need to ask the potus to approve these spending Bill's every few months if they passed a budget. This problem was made by congress.

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[marke]

McConnell blocks bill to reopen most of government

GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.



Two Republicans are entirely responsible for this continuing government shutdown ..... Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.

Senator Kaine of Virginia will ask for a Senate vote on a House government funding bill (6 CRs) on the 18th (today), the 22nd, the 23rd, and the 24th.

That's at least four more Senate opportunities within the coming week for Trump and McConnell to end their record-breaking government shutdown that is now directly affecting 1 million Americans.

Related: McConnell blocks second bill aimed at reopening the government

Democrats blame republicans for the shutdown for not yielding to unyielding democrat demands. Democrats don't seem to understand their part in the stubbornness which is keeping our government idled.

 

[trouble13]

Why should they fund the wall if they don’t want to? They were elected; Trump was elected. No reason to shut down the government.

Why. Should trump sign a bill he does not like

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[Nickyjo]

By the way, the latest Stephen Miller-inspired counter proposal is more or less: “let’s compromise, in exchange for wall funding we’ll prevent Central Americans from getting asylum.” Never seen this sort of thing before, but (an anti-Trump) GOP pundit all but suggested that Miller more or less needs to get laid to solve his problems. Sadly, as a typical liberal, have to confess feel sorry for the guy, a conservative who had to grow up in Santa Monica.

 

[Nickyjo]

Why. Should trump sign a bill he does not like

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That’s why he has veto power. Let him veto any bill. Might kill it if they can’t override the veto. End of story. Has nothing to do with his “I’ll hold my breath til I get what I want” strategy.