'Bad precedent': Sen. Roy Blunt warns Trump against invoking emergency powers to build wall

[Right_in_Virginia]

'Bad precedent': Sen. Roy Blunt warns Trump against invoking emergency powers to build wall
Washington Times, Jan 27, 2019, David Sherfinski 

Sen. Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican, on Sunday warned President Trump against invoking emergency powers to secure money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall if Congress can’t strike a deal in the coming weeks, saying such a move would be a “bad precedent.”

“I happen to agree with the president on barriers at the border and border security as an important first step, but there might be a future president that I don’t agree with that thinks something else is an emergency,” Mr. Blunt said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I think it’s a bad precedent,” he said. “I hope the president doesn’t have to go there. If we’ll do our job, he won’t even have to consider going there three weeks from now.”

Mr. Trump on Friday signed a stopgap funding bill that doesn’t include wall money and will re-open shuttered federal agencies through Feb. 15, bringing at least a temporary end to a shutdown that had stretched for more than a month.

The president said that if Congress can’t strike a deal on homeland security funding in the next three weeks, he could orchestrate another shutdown or invoke emergency powers to secure wall funding without congressional approval.


More:  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/27/roy-blunt-warns-donald-trump-against-invoking-emer/

[dfwgator]

Shut up, Roy.  You're not helping.

NEVER take any option off the table.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Hey, Blunt, buy a vowel ....

Four Decades of Emergencies

Since that first order in 1979, American presidents have declared 58 national emergencies. According to the Brennan Center's running count, 31 of these are still in effect—including the ban on Iranian property, which was extended in November of 2018. In other words, the country has been in some state of emergency for almost four decades.

These 58 national emergencies include declarations over dealings with Yemen, Syria, and North Korea, among others; sanctions against an array of terrorist groups, including one after 9/11; and various orders concerning nuclear weapons, diamonds imported from Sierra Leone, and the 2009 swine flu epidemic. Most recently, George W. Bush declared 13 and Barack Obama 12, most of which are still in effect, according to CNN.

So far, the president has declared three national emergencies under the National Emergencies Act, according to the Brennan Center. The first was in December of 2017, when Trump sanctioned 13 people for human rights abuses and corruption using an executive order. Many were generals and heads of state accused of ordering executions and mass murder, including ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

The second came in September of 2018. Criticized as too broad at the time, the order sanctioned people found to be involved in hacking and social media campaigns for the purpose of influencing elections, Politico reports. In November, Trump declared a third national emergency over Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's regime and its "use of indiscriminate violence and repressive tactics against civilians."


More:  https://psmag.com/news/the-united-states-states-of-emergencies

[XenaLee]

'Bad precedent': Sen. Roy Blunt warns Trump against invoking emergency powers to build wall
Washington Times, Jan 27, 2019, David Sherfinski 

Sen. Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican, on Sunday warned President Trump against invoking emergency powers to secure money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall if Congress can’t strike a deal in the coming weeks, saying such a move would be a “bad precedent.”

“I happen to agree with the president on barriers at the border and border security as an important first step, but there might be a future president that I don’t agree with that thinks something else is an emergency,” Mr. Blunt said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I think it’s a bad precedent,” he said. “I hope the president doesn’t have to go there. If we’ll do our job, he won’t even have to consider going there three weeks from now.”

Mr. Trump on Friday signed a stopgap funding bill that doesn’t include wall money and will re-open shuttered federal agencies through Feb. 15, bringing at least a temporary end to a shutdown that had stretched for more than a month.

The president said that if Congress can’t strike a deal on homeland security funding in the next three weeks, he could orchestrate another shutdown or invoke emergency powers to secure wall funding without congressional approval.


More:  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/27/roy-blunt-warns-donald-trump-against-invoking-emer/

Blunt's point is basically just stating the effing obvious.   But as we have seen in the past, it's the Democrats that are better known for all of those "firsts" that could be used by the other side at some future point in time.   It has never stopped the rats from doing exactly what they wanted done... and it shouldn't stop Trump from doing what needs to be done here and now.