When did $5 billion become chump change?
If I had five billion dollars I could buy:
– the L.A. Lakers pro basketball team
– the Chicago Cubs pro baseball team
– the Toronto Maple Leafs professional hockey team
– the Solomon Islands
– an Airbus A380 that is the largest passenger airplane in the world
On top of these purchases I could put in an order for a F-35C Lightning II fighter jet currently under development, and still have several millions left over.
Yet, Republican supporters of Trump’s border wall insist five billion is nothing more than chump change.
The National Institutes of Health would disagree, given the fact that only 10% of their research projects on diseases such as cancer, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s are fully funded.
So would the National Parks Service in fighting wild fires and FEMA that is without sufficient funds to continue offering relief to victims of natural disasters.
Our government does in fact throw away billions of dollars like it really is chump change, especially in payments to military contractors who build planes that don’t always fly and ships we don’t need.
But the idea that adding to this disgraceful waste of taxpayer money is nothing to worry about is not just absurd, it is immoral.
That is why Republicans supporting Trump’s wall are the public face of an entire political party that has lost its mind, abandoned its basic principles, and gone over to the dark side of morality.
Calling the shut down of the government that has needlessly inflicted hardship on millions of innocent Americans just to allow Trump to make good on a stupid promise he made to a minority of voters insane is to be too kind.
But I suppose when you’re willing to abuse babies and children by taking them away from their parents just to make a political point, there really is no limit to your moral depravity.
The thing that makes me sick and angry and disgusted is the fact that Donald Trump is not President of the United States.
By his own choice he is president to a minority of Republican voters who hate Democrats so much they are willing to sacrifice the well being of the entire country to stick a finger in their eye.
That’s why Mitch McConnell won’t bring allow votes on bills that would reopen the government. He knows they would pass and Trump would lose.
Preventing that from happening is his only priority, the nation be damned.
The reason Democrats cannot give in to Trump and the Republican Senate is simple: The United States does not negotiate with terrorists.
That is what Trump and his Republican supporters are acting like – terrorists holding American citizens hostage.
To give in would mean seeing this same scene played out again and again over the next two years.
Five billion dollars is not chump change, and this fight is bigger than the money involved.
This is a flash point over the kind of nation we are, the values we hold, and whether or not the spirit of our democracy is still alive.
Donald Trump doesn’t care about any of that, and neither do Republicans who support him, and that is why the majority of us now face a test of our will.
We must confront a man and his party who together pose a genuine threat to the democracy we believe in and must now fight to save. It is a fight not of our own choosing, but that is often the way battles with consequences arise.
The reality is, we have no choice but to stand together with steel resolve to defeat Trump and his Republican ban of thieves who are betraying the values we still hold.
linnposts.com 
Another excellent blog! You have discribed the situation in your usual insightful way. Thanks, yet again Jan , for laying it out for us to ponder.—-& act on ! !
Thanks, Joe. I hope others will think as you do about what I wrote. Good to hear from you!
It is amazing to me that we, as a nation, are at this point in our history. That 1/3 of the nation thinks Trump, McConnell and the Republican party have the nation’s best interest in mind is laughable. I worry about what will be left to salvage when we attempt to right our nation’s ship. It truly is worrisome times. Perhaps the nation that survives the Trump fiasco is the nation we truly are. Then the rebuilding can begin.
Rollie, we will survive, and in the post Trump era we will learn the full story of the damage he and his minions did. That is when I think we will have to come to grips with what has happened to us as a people. Moreover, I don’t see the divisions healing any time soon once he is gone. At the moment I have nothing but contempt for anyone who still supports him because I think they are part of actions against our country. That is not something any of us should forget lest it happen again. In short, the end of Trump which is happening now means there are very difficult days yet to come.
Jan,
Your list of what $5 Billion will buy should catch anyone’s attention. But you could have saved all that with me with just 2 of your basic statements:
“Republicans supporting Trump’s wall are the public face of an entire political party that has lost its mind, abandoned its basic principles, and gone over to the dark side of morality.”
“When you’re willing to abuse babies and children by taking them away from their parents just to make a political point, there really is no limit to your moral depravity.”
“Depravity” is a strong word. The fact that it fits Trump and his functionaries is reason for all good citizens to demand the removal of this despicable man!!
Keep speaking truth to power, as I know you will my friend……
Bill
I will as best I can as long as breath is in me, my friend, as long as breath is in me.
A few moments ago I read the story from Facebook of Paulette Wilkie, a homeless schizoid woman from Morrisville in Pennsylvania, who was found frozen to death on a park bench, for want of a place where she could take shelter. All I could do or write was to bid her to: “Rest well and in peace, for her time of suffering is now at an end”.
The bit of the good book that Donald Trump and those who support him ought to read is surely the story concerning Dives and Lazarus. For my part, I’ll light a candle and say a prayer for Paulette when next I go to my church.
Thanks, Nigel. This is a poignant reminder of how far we have to go in America to be the nation too many of us think we already are.
I read your commentary faithfully since taking your class in Northfield on “Religion and Politics.” Could you do some thoughts on the pointless (since they are under prescription), ubiquitous, and grossly expensive pharmaceutical ads on radio and TV? All the side effects listed are frightening and the savings could (but we know won’t) be used to reduce the costs of other NEEDED drugs.
Thanks for the suggestion, Lois. I will need to study the issue and will try to write something once I have.