Trump: I'll veto any bill to open government unless I get $5 billion

An impatient, petulant Trump couldn’t last more than six hours into the new Democratic majority before issuing a veto threat. A statement from the White House says Trump would veto any bills Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to pass in order to fund the government and end the Trump shutdown.

In the statement, the White House says Trump cannot support bills with “unnecessary funding for wasteful programs” unless he gets $5 billion for his pointless border wall. That supposed “unnecessary funding” Trump objects to includes support for the United Nations Population Fund, an international program that seeks to prevent violence against women, stop child marriage, and train health workers to “ensure at least 90 per cent of all childbirths are supervised by skilled attendants.”

But according to the Trump administration, that’s “unnecessary” and “wasteful.”

In addition, the Trump shutdown means the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has expired. “VAWA funds and administers numerous programs assisting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault,” reports NPR, and payments for those programs cannot be made until Republicans decide to end the shutdown.

Other “wasteful” programs called out by the White House include funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and rental assistance programs within the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In a heartless gesture, the veto threat does not even acknowledge the estimated 800,000 federal workers who are not receiving a paycheck so soon after the holiday season.

In December, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to fund the government through early February. But in a servile kowtowing to Trump, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is refusing to even vote on the House bills to re-open the government.

In her first speech of the new Congress, Pelosi set the tone for the new Democratic House majority, speaking about the need to work together for the good of the American people.

Mere hours later, Trump set the tone from his White House, issuing a tantrum-driven veto threat and refusing to work with Democrats. Trump took the mantle of the current government shutdown, and now he is obstructing good-faith efforts by Democrats to reopen the government.

Within hours of efforts from Democrats to set a more cooperative tone in Washington, Trump once again showed his true colors.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.