It was a setup for reality TV.

There is NO Senate or House legislation that has been introduced for $5.7 billion funding for a border wall! (as of 1/10/19) The noise we are hearing from Trump is therefore not about a negotiation - it is about a demand from Trump; It is about threats by Trump if he doesn’t get his way; and it is about hostage-taking (with ~800,00 Federal workers not receiving a paycheck and now the very dangerous threat to impose a “National Emergency” for a threat that doesn’t exist).

Without legislation for Congress to consider and negotiate, this demand is immoral and Democrats have no responsibility to even entertain any discussion about his matter. Nancy Pelosi is therefore correct - it is immoral.
[see: [congress.gov]]

Also, during the 115th Congress, both the Senate and the House were both controlled by Republicans and they didn’t pass any legislation for a border wall.

No less than 20 bills related to a wall on the Southern border were introduced, with no movement beyond “Introduced” on 19 of them. Only H.R.6136 - Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 went through the process. It failed; and…
S.3713 was introduced on Dec 05, 2018 by Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. It was rejected by President Trump before it even moved through the Senate process.
The important point is that the Republicans did not, or could not, pass any of these Bills.

The 116th Congress: so far, only 5 bills introduced:
Two of these five bills prohibit taxpayer funding or construction. Note that these were introduced only within the last few days so they are in the “Introduced” stage.

1. S.53 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
   A bill to appropriate $25,000,000,000 for the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico, and for other purposes. Notice this bill (S.53) was actually introduced as S.3713 (see above comment) under the 115th (Republican) Congress. It was rejected by President Trump.

2. S.25 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
   EL CHAPO Act: Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act or the EL CHAPO Act

3. H.R.32 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
   Buy a Brick, Build the Wall Act of 2019

4. H.R.365 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
   To prohibit the construction of new border barriers, including walls or fences, on certain Federal land, and for other purposes.

5. H.R.48 — 116th Congress (2019-2020)
   To prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, and for other purposes.

Not only should Democrats not compromise, they shouldn’t even be negotiation, on any level, until a Bill has been introduced in congress.

• Negotiation is about compromise.

• Both parties must understand what the goal is

  • Is the goal border security?
  • is a wall the best means of border security? (this issue hasn’t been agreed upon)
    • If the goal is security, is the risk stated real? (it is not: there is no crisis and the number of people
      apprehended has decreased year after year over the past decade; the number of unauthorized
      immigrants has decreased during this same time)
  • Or is the goal to allow Trump to save-face? Is this even possible, since he said Mexico would pay
    for the wall?
    • Should we spend $5.6 billion dollars to help him save-face? (75% of Americans don’t want a wall)

• Both parties must understand the parameters of what is being negotiated

  • Trump has not defined the parameters and since a border wall is his proposal, this is his
    responsibility:
    • how long is the wall to be? how deep in the ground? how high? construction material?
    • how is privately owned land going to be acquired? By Federal Seizure via Eminent Domain?
    • how much wall will $5.6 billion build? How much more will be required? When will taxpayers be
      expected to pay the rest?

• In negotiations you don’t draw red lines ($5.6 billion or nothing).

• You don’t make threats (shut down; “National Emergency&rdquo.

• You don’t change the rules, or the goal, in the middle of the negotiation (even Republicans have
  acknowledged that Trump is an inconsistent negotiating partner: “Hill Republicans have watched as
  Trump demanded $20 billion for a border wall, then retreated to $5 billion in recent weeks. The
  incoming Republican Leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, briefly pumped the number up to $25
  million with the President’s encouragement. That measure seems to be waiting in the wings for the
  new Congress next year and is not seen as a credible proposal.” [Why Negotiating a Border Wall With
  Trump Is So Difficult])

• You don’t misrepresent your need or product or offer by lying (Trump’s first lie was when he boxed
  himself into a corner during the election by promising that Mexico would pay for the wall; There have
  been so many other lies and misrepresentations that you can find them yourself with a simple Internet
  search).

In this case, these government players are working on our behalf to fund something for which there isn’t a clear need. These government officials also have a responsibility to spend taxpayer money wisely.

So, there are two questions on the table: 1) should we (the United States) fund a wall? 2) If so, how much will it require?

To the first question, the answer is a simple No! Why? Because the Trump Administration has lied on virtually every point made about the need. They manipulated statistics, they dismiss other options, etc, including the cost. There is no bill in Congress. Why should anyone negotiate with a perpetual lier? End of negotiation.

As for question #2, the $25 to $70 billion referenced above is an estimate, in part because it isn’t clear exactly what Trump wants, or how many times he will change his mind. You don’t negotiate without a bill and based upon an open-ended goal. Demand that a bill be introduced.

For the reasons above, Nancy Pelosi is correct: wasting any taxpayer money for a wall that hasn’t even been defined, is immoral.

tRump being polite "said bye-bye". That's out of character and we know better.

Total disaster as a "leader"

Moron will call national emergency and hopefully Congress does something.