Five billion is a "pittance"? Five billion here, five billion there, pretty soon we're talking about real money!
Rick Santorum is very, very pissy over Democrats not giving Trump his "pittance."
"This is a comprehensive approach to border security. He's no doubt offering something on the issue of DACA and other things," he said. "There is a big deal here that's probably not going to make guys like me happy with the immigration things I think are on the table, that this administration has put on the table. If the Democrats want a deal that's going to solve problems and actually do what they say they care about, having border security and dealing with the immigration problems we have in this country for folks who are here illegally, there is a deal to be done here.
"The question is whether they have the political courage to give the president a pittance, a few billion dollars out of this larger package to meet a political need of his."
Rick, didn't your parents ever explain the difference between a "need" and a "want"?
Alysin Camerota asked former Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart if Trump sounded like he was willing to compromise.
"No. The president just restated where he was: 'if I don't get my wall, I'm not re-opening the government. I'm going to take my ball and no one can play until I get what I want.'
"Should Democrats give what Rick Santorum called a pittance?" Camerota said.
"There is more than a pittance here. I agree with the senator we need to look at it as a broader border security. The president didn't say anything about DACA. Didn't say anything about dreamers. There was nothing there," Lockhart said.
"While he may have identified a humanitarian crisis that he helped create by separating families, most of the speech was about Trump vintage 2015 demonizing immigrants. He spent roughly a quarter of the speech detailing horrific acts that immigrants to this country have committed when all of the statistics show the immigrant crime rate is lower than native-born Americans. It was a squandered opportunity. He convinced no one in the public. The real question is he able to hold Senate Republicans? They are starting to fall one by one."
"Rick, the Senate Republicans seem uncomfortable with how long the shutdown is," Camerota said.
"That's a red herring. There is not going to be 13 Republicans going to abandon the president on this issue," he insisted.
"That's a red herring issue. The fact that the president talked about the consequences of the illegal immigrants in which country committing crime, Joe, with all due respect, you can say it's a smaller percentage. They shouldn't be here. we are talking about people who are illegally in this country and they should not be here and they are doing these things."
"Understood," Lockhart said.
"Don't brush it off, Joe. That's unfair to the families affected who say, look, these people are here unjustifiably. This should not have happened."
The wall doesn't stop the heroin trade, Camerota pointed out. "They come through ports of entry through tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles. People who are climbing over a fence aren't lugging heroin."
"Here's what I know. Every border security agent and Homeland Security person that's interviewed says that border security fencing and walls are an important part of an integrated plan to secure the border. we have almost 700 miles of fence and it has worked. It's dramatically reduced crime and immigration," Santorum said.
"Shore it up. That's the point. Democrats, Joe, correct me if i'm wrong -- but Democrats have given money to shore up the fencing that works."
"They have. Republicans voted --"
"Why are they opposing it?"
"Let me make my point. Republicans voted 100-0 in the Senate to go forward with it. This is about politics. Senator, with all due respect, if you are worried about these cases that the president mentioned yesterday, let's deal with the real national emergency, which is gun violence," Lockhart said.
"On the floor of the United States House yesterday, you saw Steve Scalise and Gabrielle Giffords hug. They are both victims of gun violence. I don't think the American people need a lecture from you or the president on what the problem is. There is not a crisis at the border. We have four times as many border agents than in 2000. We have 80% less people coming over. It's a manufactured crisis for the president to get a political win. This is about more than a political win."
