Rep. David Price (D-NC) joined Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss the just-announced agreement of the conference committee meeting to appropriate funds for Homeland Security. As Price explained, there is a deal, and the deal actually includes less money for the border wall than he would have had if they had passed a continuing resolution based on current funding levels.
"There is funding for a wall of this deal but it is a something considerably less than the concrete barrier that [Trump] was talking about and it is far less than the funding in any of the alternatives that we were dealing with," Price explained. "The number is less than the two billion that would be available, a good deal less than the 2 billion that would be available if we passed a continuing resolution for the rest of the year and many billions less than what Trump shut down the government over."
Oh. Brian Williams is saying, as I write, that Trump will sign it and then declare an emergency to strip some funding from the military for his boondoggle.
Price pointed out there are already a lot of fences on the border, that crossings are at a 40-year low, and the issue right now is people turning themselves in and requesting asylum.
There are some other indicators suggesting that Trump actually will sign this, in spite of his interview with Laura Ingraham taking place directly after his El Paso rally. For example, this:
We've gone from "build the wall" to "finish the wall," as if said wall has been built in the past two years. While it's true, as Rep. Price noted, that there are fences and barriers built already, the fact is that this deal looks a lot like the one Trump shut down the government over on December 21st.
Stay tuned. It's still got to get through Congress and Trump's signature. If he signs it and then declares an emergency, it'll go to court.
Imagine him declaring an emergency when none exists. Then imagine what a Democratic president could do with a real emergency (health care, global warming, etc). Build that wall, baby. We'll tear it down while we do some things with those emergencies.
UPDATE: Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, who usually has access to the White House, posts this:
