Walls not schools. Tax breaks for billionaires. No healthcare plan. Crumbling infrastructure. Climate change/science denial. Let them eat cake.
78
@Robert M. Koretsky But, Trump is the bestest business owning president ever and he is making America great again-so bleat his supporters along with McConnell and Graham.
17
He did make promises about other things. Why does everyone, including the media, focus only on the wall? What about infrastructure, for example? Another big promise going nowhere.
58
@SuseG More promises went by the wayside-a better healthcare than "Obamacare" and less expensive prescription medications-yet Trump supporters and Trump himself claim "promises made and promises kept" and America is great again.
18
@SuseG
But we should also focus on the things he has achieved.
Reversed the government's course on climate change.
Reversed rules on air and water pollution, causing serious health hazards.
Reversed our support for our allies so they will stop depending on us.
Granted waivers on arms sales to enrich our businessmen.
Given corporations a huge tax break which helped them earn more profits and buy back stock - thus also pushing up stock prices.
Giving real estate investors a huge tax breaks for projects in opportunity zones.
Travelled extensively improving local economies (this achievement despite claiming during the campaign he expected to spend most of his time in Washington)
Gutted the EPA, Interior Department, Consumer Protection Bureau and other departments and agencies of leaders that believed in the role protecting the public.
To keep the economy growing, in addition to the huge tax cut he jaw-boned the FED into lowering interest rates.
He humbled many foreign leaders with personal attacks and insults.
He is bullying China on trade - never mind that in a few short years China, with 4 times our population and 3 times our economic growth rate, will easily become much larger and more powerful. But right now we are the bull in the China shop.
People should focus on Trump's achievements not a few broken promises and his lying, spiteful personality.
14
Donald Trump: “These kids should be happy to sacrifice themselves for my re-election campaign.”
31
It's your tax dollars Trump is using as his own piggy bank. Wake up America!
64
How do Trump supporters and Republicans in the lower classes not see that voting Republican is voting against their self interests? Every farmer, every blue collar worker, every member of the military should be voting Democrat.
31
@Misplaced Modifier
They are unable to think independently and brained washed to stay the course despite mounds of evidence contrary to their understanding.
9
If you keep people uneducated you can lead them where ever you want that’s trumps plan.
18
I can only hope that the service members & veterans that voted for draft dodging Donny wake up & realize what a disaster he is.
23
Every second we debate about the usefulness of a wall, thousands of illegals, rapists, murderers, terrorists, child abusers are streaming across our porous borders into El Paso and shooting up our legal citizens.
Enough.
Build that wall, Mr. President.
3
@J. Swift, actually in El Paso American citizens who buy into the "Immigration Emergency" fantasy are shooting up other American citizens, so you might want to shift your efforts to gun control, not useless construction projects.
25
@J. Swift, the statistics that the centers for disease control and the federal bureau of investigation, that track illegal crimes, does not support your accusations. America leads the world in rape and rapists, per statistics kept by the cdc and federal bureau of investigation. There has been a travel warning by the stay department for years, warning visitors, abo crimes against women, specifically rape.
12
How many per second are arriving? Are they getting to Oregon?
8
Look at the map on this web site: https://humaneborders.org/migrant-death-mapping/
The red dots are migrant deaths. These translate directly to the number of migrants trying to cross at the various locations. The big green area on the lower left side of the map without any red dots is where Trump is building the fence. In other words he is taking funds from the children in SC to build a fence where there are no migrants crossing.
2
The money went to bolster Trump's chance of re-election! The military has just made a $3.5 billion campaign contribution to Trump's re-election. The military has also identified $3.5 billion of waste, projects less important that a wall that will accomplish nothing except increasing Trump's bragging. This is the most obvious political partisanship by the military since Vietnam.
Anyone else noticed the obvious? Conservative media bias has certainly let it pass.
2
Many other readers will have been surprised by the amount of $62.5m.
A school building alone would not cost that much, so I expect of part of that amount will include future maintenance, teaching/support staff, school buses,...
Could someone detail that?
Further, if further costs are included (money to be appropriated in years in the future), how can the entire sum be appropriated today to build the wall?
But, privately, several department officials acknowledged that their position was tenuous. After circumventing the will of a Congress that refused to fund the wall, the department faces an uphill task trying to convince lawmakers that they should put money back into projects whose money has been diverted by the Pentagon to the wall.
If you want money talk to the House of Representatives. They refuse to consider anything but resistance. It isn't Trump, Snowflakes. It is the demorats.
DOD Schools in the US are a relic of the past. Their real purpose is to let southern states escape paying the cost of educating families from the military industry that drives their economies. Most States pay to educate the children of the military families… southern States should fall in the same category. The privatization of military housing further adds credence to the fact these States should be picking up the tab rather than taxpayers in general (e.g., housing companies are paid based on local rental rates that include school taxes). Redirecting the money to the border is as good of use of money as subsidizing education systems in a few southern States.
Right on. If local schools are good enough for our kids, why are the military so special? They get far too much already from the taxpayers.
If they don't like it, let them get out of the military and get a real job.
Moscow Mitch, Trump’s Puppet, feels supporting Trump’s obscene border wall is more important than supporting the military and his voters. Perhaps his compensation will be his defeat in his upcoming reelection bid and a job as a dishwasher at a Trump golf club.
1
Haven't read all these comments, but here's a thought.....make Ivanka send her kids to this school and see how she likes it....
2
This is an outrage.
Yet, like the farmers who are receiving (socialist?) subsidy while the trade war continues, our military must be willing to give up basic middle class necessities like adequate educational facilities in order to keep the criminals and rapists from Mexico from "invading" the United States.
Maybe President Trump should get Mexico to pay for the new school.
92
Good to see we have our values in the right place. Wasting money on building something that fundamentally will make little impact on illegal immigration at the expense of our military families.
52
I hope that the families that are being negatively affected by Trump's vanity project understand that he is 100% responsible for the situation. I'm genuinely unsure they will, when you have bald-faced liars like McConnell running around telling these families that it's somehow all the Democrats' fault.
99
The Administrations’ peddling of an autocracy rather than a democracy as intended by America’s forbearers needs to be stopped by the other Judicial and legislative branches of government even before any changes afforded by Impeachment or the ballot box. Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall.
17
"Border security" is a lie of an excuse. Transferring much-needed military funding (including funding for personnel, their education, and their care) to a useless wall is a manifestating of treason on the part of Trump and his collaborating GOP.
31
We are no longer a democracy when we have a president who lies and breaks laws with no consequence. "Norms" and "red lines" are the stuff of autocrats. We need laws that apply to everyone equally, including the president. Trump has shown us what a house we have built on shifting sands. This didn't start with him, but it can end with him if we care enough to vote. What about it Kentucky?
28
Nine states surrounding Mexico said they have no crime wave from the Mexicans. Trump and the GOP are making this more of a problem and really are just avoiding our countries more serious problems affordable health care and protecting our climate from polluters . Unfortunately the GOP are the polluters. Lock them up for destroying our climate and America instead of making it great again.
16
I'm an army brat. I spent three years in (elementary) school at Ft Campbell, out of my father's three assignments with the 101st, and I believe that military families, who deal with so much else in their lives, should not be let down once again by politics.
I learned many hard lessons in my (20) years of brat-dom; the support structures in the military community helped me deal with the fact that daddies sometimes didn't come back, that sometimes their helicopters crashed, that sometimes children died of unimaginable diseases. A lot of the help I had in working through these hard lessons came from my teachers, who had time to work with and support individual students with military life in general. It's a unique situation, and one I can't see being sustainable when classrooms are overcrowded and the people who choose to teach these students aren't able to teach to the best of their abilities.
Military families get the short shift every. single. time and they're being passed over, once again, in favor of political grandstanding. Every child there knows the true meaning of national security, and since military installations are multicultural, they understand that better than the politicians, too.
Families serve too. Don't forget them and their needs in favor of empty political flag-waving and wall-building.
219
@Sarah C. Retired enlisted here. From way back in time. Back when troops were told, "If you needed a wife & kids we would issue them."
6
@Sarah C.
An Army Brat for 20+ years (like you Sarah), only one year was at an on-base school, one in the Ft Benning school system.
It was the school year when JFK was assassinated, the Beatles first performed on Ed Sullivan, and when the U.S. was ramping up for Vietnam.
I remember it being a good school as was my 5th grade teacher. It probably had just a few more students per class relative to the various parochial schools I went to when we lived off base or on one too small to support a school.
But even then military families like ours had to endure less than stellar educational opportunities. My dad turned down a posting to Stuttgart, then West Germany: there were 900 kids in a school meant for 600. He took a “hardship” tour to Korea, we remaining in Georgia, for similar reasons. (As a lad in those days, I would have loved to have gone to either or both)
We moved often, new quarters on the next base, new schools, new friends, & then it would happen again, & again. I actually liked it, having wished we went back to Germany (where I was born) or to Korea as well as the other “almost postings”.
Reading about these situations like in Ft Campbell now breaks my heart. As Brats, we’re a resilient lot, yet anything, anyone regardless of one’s personal elasticity can be stretched too far.
Again, this administration with its maniacal obsession for a stupid wall takes it out on the kids. And they don’t even have to be refugees from afar. They’re already ours.
26
@Sarah C. Not sure if you know this, but under Dem control, military families suffered much more with budget cuts, especially overseas.
I was born into a Navy family. I was a teacher, my husband was a Vietnam veteran. I spent my entire adult life as a wife and now a mother of Navy men.
Does anyone stand with the military family or has "thank you for your service" become as hallow as "thoughts and prayers"
to the families of gun violence. Has America lost its conscience
3
@Manaone I grew up a Navy brat, joined and did 15yrs before medical retirement. My entire family has generations of military service. I am to the point that when someone says, "Thank you for your service!", my response is, "Not if you voted for Trump." Most are taken aback and my response is, "60 million people voted for Trump after he made it pretty clear that he is jealous of anyone who served in the military and has spent the last 2.5 years proving it." This isn't anything new. Trump insults Gold Star families, forgets the name of a dead Black soldier, sides with our Cold War enemies and admires cowards, and his embarrassing obsession with John McCain. I'm done playing games with Trump voters. I'm done with the phony gratitude from "people" who vote for hate and racism. At 62 and retired, I have no one to answer to but my wife who agrees with everything I just wrote and everything I say. She's COMNAVHOUSEPAC and everything goes through command!
3
@miltchocklit Well said! Regards to Navy SDiego and COMNAVHOUSEPAC! It is a wise veteran that knows the chain of command.
1
This shows how little our beloved leader cares about our military men and women and their families. If Moscow Mitch believes that we need “The Wall”, then he should introduce a bill to fund it. But since he failed to do that when the Republicans held both the House and the Senate, it is quite clear he does not support a wall and is using the military families in his usual cynical way.
2
Not supporting Trumps misappropriation of funds. But $62 million! Sounds like an awful lot of money to me. I smell waste.
1
Trump's money grab must stop--and hopefully courts will take care of that. It seems that there is nothing in the law that Trump believes applies to him, except when it gives him power.
I'd rather build schools and homes for our military members than a silly egotistic wall that does nothing useful.
3
Graham has the nerve to say these kids at Fort Campbell are more secure because of the wall. I guess the cybersecurity upgrades that were also ditched as part of the money grab aren't really necessary either — I'm sure the wall will deter hackers in addition to women and children.
2
Lived on military bases. Kids attended base school. More moves than I can count. My husband, a helicopter pilot, was deployed more than 200 days a year for most of our kids’ childhoods. It’s a lifestyle full of uncertainty and sacrifice. For most, it’s made possible & tolerable only by the vital infrastructure of base housing & schools where the unique burdens of military families, like the deployments of moms and dads, are shared. Contrary to Republican rhetoric, “Supporting our Military” is not the funding of foreign wars & new missiles. If you don’t help military families, you don’t “support the military.” Moscow Mitch, stop pretending you do. By the way, the ACA also expanded benefits to military families.
7
Art. I, Sec. 9 of the US Constitution states:"No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; ", and no law appropriating money for Trump's border wall was ever passed by Congress.
I know there is a SCOTUS order blessing what a first glance looks like a blatant violation of that clause, but has SCOTUS ever published an opinion explaining or justifying it ? If so, where is it ?
2
My siblings and I attended the schools on Fort Campbell, so this story hits home (literally).
It also made me recall how Eisenhower, one of our greatest generals ever, worked to keep extremist views of national defense in check as President. When Curtis LeMay insisted that increasing Air Force spending on fighter jets was the only way to stave off a communist threat, Eisenhower pointed out that he could build a hundred elementary schools for the cost of a few bombers and that education would keep us freer in the long run than any amount of armaments ever could.
Lindsay Graham - you're a military retiree - why don't you take a page from a man greater than yourself and do the right thing on this issue rather than shrugging it off? Mitch McConnell, why aren't you standing up for the children of your constituents?
And for crying out loud, why aren't DEMOCRATS finding ways to stop this madness?
Every elected official in any party who takes a pass on diverting DOD educational funding to a political vanity project should be tossed out in the next election.
We'll elect grown-ups with vertebrae intact to get the job done.
8
@ShallBe
Tell me this. How do you expect Democrats to do anything when you've got Donald Trump in the White House and a lockstep Republican Senate under Mitch McConnell crippling anything that comes up in Congress?
Want grown-ups?
Then VOTE THEM OUT!
4
@ShallBe too many cowards afraid to stand up for what is right....
I wasn't aware of the schools run by the military, and as another commenter pointed out, they can provide unique support to children who's parents go on long deployments. However, I also feel that these schools further isolate the military from civilian life, similar to how the all-volunteer military has created an entirely separate culture within the country. It is dangerous to a democratic nation to create a military culture that is fully isolated, where members might feel more allegiance to their command structure than to elected politicians. Bringing back the draft would help ameliorate this problem, as would making sure, at least domestically, that children aren't segregated into military schools, away from their civilian counterparts.
2
@Wayne Cunningham
There have been base schools since before I attended them almost 70 years ago. This was when there was still segregation and remember how many bases are in places where that happened. If the military kids do not attend school on base, then money is paid into the local system. The base schools can also give badly needed support to these families who are impacted by multiple deployments.
Maybe so, but money that could be spent on educating Americans or the children of service people is spent on housing, medical care and other services for persons who arrive from the all over the World as tourists or enter without permission. If money is fungible then why focus on this example unless it is intended to offer indirect opposition to the Wall and is not really concerned with the deteriorating school. Where was this reporter when the school needed improvements but before the Wall was an issue?
@Marc
The Wall will not stop those that enter this country legally and then over stay their visas. Most of the immigrants on the Southern border are coming to our checkpoints and asking for asylum. We need to think about who we need here, doctors, engineers, people to pick our apples and tomatoes.
I'm sure all these children will feel better knowing their parents voted for a more secure border instead of a good education for them.
Will be sad to see all these service men and women vote Trump in 2020 even after he sells their lives so cheaply.
5
When one looks at the whole list of where the money is being "stolen" from, instead of helping keep our military strong, which has been a republican mantra for years, one is struck by what seems to be absolutely inflated and outrageously high costs of items that would be much cheaper in the civilian economy. If this country wants to save money cut back on the overall bloated defense department budget.
2
@alf13
Please check where a lot of the monies go. The army has told Congress that they have more tanks than they need But the tanks are built in several Congressional districts. Do you truly believe that those congressmen would be willing to give up those jobs for their constituents. This all goes back to Eisenhower and before.my uncle was an Admiral back in the 50’s when he was invited to a White House diner he explained to me that he had to buy things he neither wanted nor needed from the men who had given the president money for his campaign.
In other words, the alleged "end run" around Congress's explicit prohibition of federal funding for "the wall," is no longer "alleged."
When Defense Department officials say that "their hope was to get Congress to replace the funding for the middle school and the other projects," what they're doing is admitting what everyone has suspected all along. That the President of the United States is subverting Congress's constitutional powers of budgetary oversight, by diverting funds away from their intended purposes, hoping to shame and force Congress into allocating more funds in order to fill the gaps and make up the difference.
In other words, the President is diverting money allocated for one purpose into a slush fund designated for a completely different purpose, and telling Congress to give him more money to replace the money he just stole--er, "reappropriated."
If that sounds like state-sponsored money laundering, that's because it is. And unless Congress and the Courts act to stop it, it will almost certainly become the go-to standard for Presidents who cannot get Congress to approve funding for their pet projects. Can't fund your healthcare plan? Raid the DHS budget, and tell Congress to make up the difference, or else. Congress won't fund your travel expense? Raid the Highway Fund, and tell them to make up the difference, or else. Can't get money for your "private security contractors?" Drain the Social Security trust and tell Congress to cover it--or else.
4
Though this is very unfortunate, such conditions are the rule, not the exception, in public schools across the country. I have worked in “ poor” schools up and down the East Coast as well as on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. A school I worked in in Maryland had black mold. Teachers regularly buy their own supplies, and rely on local non- profit generosity to provide clothing and shoes to the children and their families. We are happy to give tax cuts to the rich and fight endless wars, but our children practically go begging. I feel only shame for my country now.
6
Is not Trump's border wall, but America's border wall. Every single legal citizen benefits from the border being secured. They benefit economically & by being safer.
@Scott Not....
@Scott,
Most illegals are here on expired visas from school.
Google it !
The Army is a swell Government contender for the private sector in science applications, why build a wall? Army puts everyone to work. Slashing money to Army makes private sector slack in a sense.
Children have always had a special place in the hearts and laws of this country, with special protections created for children to help educate them and protect them from the burdens of adulthood. With that backdrop, the behavior of the Trump administration in stealing funding from education for the children of our active military is a shame, a travesty, and a stain on our country. Clearly this has been an end run around the will of the representatives who represent the people, and it hurts the military children most of all. This demonstrates again, that Trump's "love of the military" only extends as far as how it makes him look.
It doesn't matter. These parents will all vote for Trump and McConnell anyway. They'll happily sacrifice their own children if Trump tells them to.
They're OK with their own children suffering as long as it means keeping out Those People.
2
@Mary
I think you are wrong. I talk to a lot of my military friends and they do not like trump.
The cost of trump's golfing trips to Mar-a-Lago and his other properties at taxpayer expense since he took office would more than pay for this school. trump's McConnell-abetted grifting has real-world consequences. What will happen to the defunded projects in districts without representatives as powerful and corrupt as Mitch?
4
Kentucky is not the only state betrayed by a Republican senator. Thom Tillis, R-NC, said he would fight Trump’s proposal to use funds of the Defense Department to build his wall. NC according to a report in The Charlotte Observer pointed out that the military based here will lose more funds, $80 million, than any other state. More spineless senators kowtowing to this feckless president.
4
Hopefully our military will consider this just cause to leave the trump base.
3
This corruption is what the people in Kentucky and Tennessee voted for. Hard to feel sorry for them.
3
How a Republican President Loses the Support of the Military, by Donald Trump.
2
Please know this: Republicans do not care about you. If your child has to eat his lunch in a school bathroom sitting on the toilet, that's just too bad because Trump needs your tax dollars to build a wall nobody wants except him and his sycophant republicans in office.
The section of the article that reads, "...David Popp, a spokesman for Mr. McConnell, said that “we would not be in this situation if Democrats were serious about protecting our homeland and worked with us to provide the funding needed to secure our borders during our appropriations process" is a clear and perfect example of what republicans do when they know they are wrong - they blame someone else for the problem they created.
Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Barr, and all the others in the republican party are the wrong kind of leaders - they're leading our country down the drain. Election Day 2020 cannot come soon enough.
5
In Manhattan 32 children per class is a routine. That number is mostly due to the influx of the illegal immigrants coming here . Let's build the wall to stop more of that invasion Money well spent
@Marika
Here's some news for you.
The population of New York City is constantly expanding because people want to move here -- not just immigrants.
And 32 to a class is on a good day, in any borough.
Try getting the facts first.
National defense is not just tanks and guns and bullets and ships and planes. It's the border wall too.
That said we have on order 2,424 F35 airplanes which cost $247 million apiece. Cancel a few of them and there's your border wall funding. Instead of 2,424 of them I think we can live with 2,300 and still out-maneuver Al-Queda.
More dummies.
More walls.
Make America Great Again
Don't take my word for it; take the words of a 'very stable genius'.
"We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated"
- Donald Trump in 2016
Sad.
Catastrophic.
A national disaster.
5
Seriously?
I have a hard time believing that the top brass do not know what a horribly bad idea this is or are simply unconcerned for the welfare of these military families. Are they just keeping quiet until the can collect their pensions? When are we going to start seeing some push-back from the adults in the room?
I understand chain of command but this is All American Stupid. No one should have to go along with this nonsense.
1
Used to be... the military took good care of it's troops and family members.
Now days.. it appears that the military has sold it's sole too Trump and will simply do what he wants, legal or not, ethical or not, in the best interests of troops and their dependents or not.
This is absolutely disgusting!!!
1
Republicans like McConnell can blame Democrats but the fact is, the Trump Administration and Republicans torpedoed four various bills in 2018 that provided 25 billion in border security. Republicans love the blame game. They can only win by cheating.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/as-immigration-showdown-looms-in-senate-trump-administration-is-doing-everything-in-our-power-to-stop-bipartisan-plan-official-says/2018/02/15/e0cff9d0-1260-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html
4
The president promised that Mexico would pay for the wall. Now, apparently, our veterans are paying for it.
2
“It’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border,” Mr. Graham said. "
Translation: better to keep young people stupid and uneducated so they will keep thinking we (the Republican Party) actually care about them.
4
Trump throws children under bus. Not need anymore.
1
Oh the tripe these people spew! The politicians actually think millions of trained defense people really believe the US is incapable of managing the border with a country 57 times less wealthy than her? If they do what does that say about our military impotence?
- "men and women serving there keep America safe"
- "protecting our homeland"
- "a national emergency on our hands"
- "the border came before education"
- "better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border"
When you hate brown people more than you love the troops.
1
As a born and raised army brat, I attended sixth grade in 1959 at a base school at Fort Campbell. This being sixty years ago, Mahaffey Middle School did not exist then, but the school I attended was spacious, uncrowded, and every student's needs were fulfilled. Of course, 1959 was a time when the nation's military dependents was a much larger population than that in 2019, so the assurance of dependent students receiving the best education with the best resources was a given back then. In 1960 our family moved to West Germany, where I attended Hanau Junior High School and Frankfurt American High School; both of these institutions mirrored the excellence of what I experienced at Fort Campbell. It's sad to see our military's dependents being treated in 2019 as if they were some expendable commodity - and this has been the case for several decades now. Shameful.
18
“And who is carrying the burden of so many years of war? It’s these schoolchildren.”
They're also carrying the burden of living in a country "governed" by Trump and his GOP enablers, including Sen. McConnell.
19
Congress should immediately reallocate funds to some of the projects - such as the school - by reallocating White House funding.
Cut travel funding so the President cannot vacation every week.
Cut funding for White House salaries - let the President decide who to eliminate or how to reduce salaries.
Cut the entertainment budget.
Cut funding for housekeeping services - let the President pick up his own socks.
This may seem petty, but may be the only way to reach an egomaniac who listens to no one.
We should not let the students and military suffer the effects of Trump's paranoia - we need to fund the projects. But why should any other program or project suffer to make up for Trump's perfidy?
23
@Rocky
Literally the only way this situation will change is if the next Democratic President, on his first day in office, immediately declares a national emergency and reallocates ALL of the military money slated for Red state military bases to whatever pet project he/she chooses. And if the Republicans object to it they'd force them to take the whole matter to court and tie up the money for years if necessary (starving these bases of ALL funding in the process).
Only THEN with the republicans in congress DEMAND that iron-clad laws be written and enforced immediately to prevent the selfsame abuses they are barely shrugging at today.
Remember, as it's been clearly shown lately, the GOP will ONLY enforce the law if a Democrat is in office.
2
trump's actions diverting pentagon funds for the wall shows he has no respect for the military, and his continued bowing down to the NRA, particularly on the issue of assault weapons, shows he has no respect for the police. In case no one has noticed, he also has absolutely no respect for America or its values.
23
$62 million dollars to enlarge a middle school for just under 600 kids? Maybe that's the story that needs to be investigated.
2
You vote for him?
You put up with him.
Remember, he puts revenge, selfishness and greed above children, elderly, anyone.
I know I generalize, but what are your voting plans military families?
Whose box you gonna cross?
15
Oh, the sheer irony!
So here we have people who willing signed up for the military, out of 'honor and duty' to the Great US of A. They are routinely used by our own government, and when the government has no more use for these people, they are chewed up and spit out. No support. No meaningful mental health counseling. Rotten V.A. hospitals. Etc.
Now these very same people are being further mistreated, and all to support a 'wall'? Funny how we never think to take money from our over-bloated war ('defense') coffers, to pay for truly meaningful things that will improve the lives of everyday Americans.
And yet, I suppose these same brainwashed soldiers will continue to support and vote for Trump??
8
We have heard for weeks and months about Trump's violation of his office--in this case the emoluments clause. What has been done about? The press has done its job in calling the public to this, but nothing is done to prevent this"victim less" crime. How about some action on this as well as the violations to the budget in re the wall on the border.
6
@billw it seems nothing is being done about any of Trump's many outrageous actions. First a bunch of idiots vote him in despite his being, or more likely because of his being, a racist, misogynist, liar and crook. And now our cowardly lawmakers are too worried about losing their lucrative positions to stand up to this nut job. Heaven help us all.
1
I’m not the first to ask, but still wondering why a school for three grades and about 550 students would cost $62 million.
16
@Kyle C Kerbawy Well, ya know, McConnell has to get his share.
1
@Kyle C KerbawyTexas puts that much into their high school football stadiums. Priorities, priorities, priorities.
2
@Kyle C Kerbawy
The slightly above median cost for a high school for 600 students is 20 million USD. The military base school projected cost is 95 million, 62.5 of which has been shifted to the wall.
So do Japanese schools cost almost 5x more than American schools? Sounds like a combination of Pentagon bloat and the chiseling contractors they keep afloat. If and when constructed the school will probably be substandard and multiply defective, like many base housing projects. So one thief robs another.
Keep the electorate ignorant and uneducated and you manipulate the way they vote..great example right here.
24
What happened to that check from Mexico? This is a typical Trump rope-a-dope. My question is will congress allow him to do this.
11
I think Congress is powerless at this point. I believe the Supreme Court has ruled that the President has the right to declare a national emergency and appropriate the funds. I disagree but just clarifying the current situation.
6
@Andy
The Supreme Court did not rule on the basic issue of could he move funds, only that he could not be enjoined from starting until the issue is decided. But that sounds like an even crazier ruling to me.
2
Donald Trump could secure all of the funding in the world he wants.
Good luck trying to seize the land from Texans to build it. That will be one heck of a show.
11
@Austin Ouellette They've already done it. Look what happened under Bush. They seized hundreds of people's property, and gave them little to nothing in return.
It was appalling, but nobody really cared.
@Austin Ouellette
"Take the land"
Wink
"I'll pardon you"
Just kidding?
~Donald J Trump
1
Once again the military personnel and their families pay for the vanity projects of a president and sycophantic members of Congress. Whether it's cuts in housing, pay, benefits, uniforms, it's always the actual human beings who have chosen to serve their country who suffer the shortages.
11
@Jean
ACTUALLY its the Taxpayers paying for it. The military personnel are the ones getting a free school unlike everyone else in the country. They volunteered and get paid. I did not ask them to do it so stop acting like they are doing it for anyone but themselves. You should ask why taxpayers have to pay to support the military as they already get more money than any other organization in the world!!!
This shift in funding, resulting in the loss of a school in favor of a border wall, is a potent metaphor and indicator of the direction of the GOP's priorities.
Quite starkly, they believe it would be better to satisfy the rabid anti-immigrant base that keeps the current Republicans in minority-rule status than to allow the children of this nation to be educated.
24
@JLC
Trump loves the uneducated, and they love him, so it follows that he is doing his best to create more of them.
5
Politics aside, why will a middle school cost roughly $118,000 per student?
11
@Ray Thweatt - What on earth happened to education in the U.S.?
It's stunning that people can't seem to grasp that thousands of students will pass through a school over a twenty year period.
16
This being Kentucky, most of then voted for Trump to begin with. I hope they learnt the lesson by now.
9
@Dario
This being the military, most of them are temporary *occupants* of Kentucky and tend to maintain their *residency* in a different state. As the son of a career US Marine we lived all over but my father maintained his original Pennsylvania residency until he retired. So, as is often the case, it's easy for Moscow Mitch to take a dump on the military and their dependents as he doesn't view them as being part of his true constituency.
11
As a Counselor I worked in the schools on Fort Campbell in 2009-2010. At that time, the teachers were using carts as mobile class room. We were putting garbage cans under leaks in classrooms and the cafeterias. This NYT article is completely accurate.
I have always wondered if they were able to have their schools refurbished or rebuilt. Now I know. This is very sad. I can not believe that anyone would take funds away from institutions that promote learning and provide safety for the children of our brave and dedicated members of the military. Many of them who are deployed multiple times!!
84
One of the items was a $45 million school for children of American servicemen in Japan.
What Trump has revealed is how many things in the military budget are not weapons systems or directly military but support for dependents.
It's easy for him to argue these are frills and his precious Wall is more important.
What I would love to see is cancellation of tank production from those plants in Jim Jordan's district in Lima, Ohio.
Talk about unnecessary expense--a pork barrel boondoggle for a Congressman: In what scenario will tanks ever be a major factor in 21st century battle? We might as well be paying Jordan's constituents to make bayonets and bridles for horse cavalry.
If Trump does any good at all, it will be to inadvertently shine a light on waste and abuse and corruption in our spending.
58
@Claudia You nailed it. When GEN Ray Odierno tells you the Army doesn't need tanks, you don't go spending $120 million on new tanks. But of course, that's what this administration did.
9
@Claudia
It is more than a little ridiculous to think that tanks are obsolete in light of the overwhelming success of American armor in our last two major conflicts. Just because defense spending is bloated, wasteful and quite often counter productive, don't rush to discontinue a proven and effective part of our national defense.
@SapperInTexas
To be clear, General Odierno never said that the Army doesn't need tanks. He indicated that the Army didn't need to buy tanks in the year 2014 and didn't need to refurbish tanks until 2017. It is now 2019. The argument in 2014 was not whether tanks were obsolete or unneeded, but whether to shut down a production line and attempt to re-open it several years later when the need would be greater. Attempting to use that argument to say that tanks are no longer needed is both disingenuous and dangerous. Not to put too fine a point on it, but such arguments get people killed, lose battles and prolong wars.
So there was 3.7 billion in the Pentagon budget that was not necessary for Pentagon functions, otherwise it could not have been diverted to building a public relations project that has no military value.
That means that Congress can cut that amount out of the upcoming Pentagon budget, so big savings.
If Congress approves replacement of the diverted funds in an upcoming budget then they are effectively saying that funding the Trump Wall is something of which they approve.
Don't think that will happen.
9
That is Donald Trump's vanity border wall. A wall that is not needed! There is no immigrant emergency!
25
You think people would know that after every agency in the US that handle security or immigration said that a wall would slow down as little as 10% of illegal immigrants and when they tested the Prototype walls, that are currently being used, they could be sawn through in about an hour with very cheap tools. So they potentially don't stop anyone at all.
5
The no integrity GOP is complicit.
20
Trump said he would rebuild America, but he is incapable. Instead like the character in Pink Floyd's "The Wall", the 'wall' he's building is a psychological wall around his own insecure mental state.
18
Just another example of ego gratification over benefit for the people!
He will keep getting away with everything he can. Typical amoral person.
13
Placing the sons and daughters at risk for a non-emergency to achieve a political goal? Tired of "winning " yet?
12
Not to worry, Kentucky! The president you voted for in 2016 and your senior senator will take care of you and your children. Promise.
15
If Trump views the schools as expendable, maybe the bases are too. This could be a sign of things to come.
8
A local school district in North Dakota just built a new high school for 100 kids, for $9 million. This $62.6 million is absurd.
You know someone is getting paid, and it has nothing to do with building supplies or labor.
7
@Raz - Um, I don't know how to break this to you but those 100 kids will eventually graduate and will be replaced with new kids each year.
5
This is a school for 550 kids that has seen a lot of growth. So let’s say it’s for 600 kids or 6 times as many children as your high school. In reality, it will serve thousands over the years.
$9 million x 6 = $54 million
$62.5 million doesn’t seem too far off, does it?
1
Maybe the military could purchase 2 fewer F-35s. Then they could build and repair schools, housing and other military facilities.
12
In other words, the military (and therefore, American taxpayers) should find any means necessary to pay for a wall that Donald Trump promised Mexico would pay for and his supporters hysterically cheered for.
2
Let’s not forget that we now have a $1 trillion deficit, since we no longer ask corporations or billionaires to pay taxes.
What were we thinking???
Where are the fiscal-responsibility Republicans, the I’m-sorry-that’s-too-expensive-and-unless-you-can-pay-for-it-we’re-not-talking-about-it folks? This is an imaginary emergency.
24
Yet they will still continue to vote Republican in 2020. I'm all out of sympathy for these impacted Americans who continue to vote against their best interests out of fear of the other (immigrant, LGBT, etc), or their anti-choice stance or desire to hold onto their guns.
17
@AK there are so many dumb non issues or human rights that Republicans take offense against and it seems to get worse every year. I wonder if eventually they'd crucify me and my family for going mostly vegetarian to more easily maintain healthy weights.
2
I genuinly can't say I'm not suprised that he did that, with the government temporary shutdown being a prime example.
4
I am sure the military families will be upset with this, and will consequently vote GOP until the conditions change.
9
That is what happens if the Democrats in Congress don't notice when a million unvetted and unvettable people cross the border illegally.
The President did what he could, under the circumstances. The nation should be grateful.
People who don't notice a million people should be in an entirely different line of business. Not in Congress.
Let us hope that after 2020 they will be.
Our soldiers should survive another two years in the same conditions as their predecessors. After all, they are soldiers.
2
I guess you forgot that Republican members of Congress also voted against funding the wall.
2
They got what and who they voted for.
The enlisted ranks overwhelming supports him.
7
@Lawrence
I'd like to hear that from the enlisted ranks.
2
@Lawrence better check the statistics. According to the military times and Several government papers, most military personnel voted third party
@Lawrence I wouldn't put too much faith in any current surveys. He is literally their boss so most criticism in the ranks will be muted.
1
There's really no problem here.
Just get Mexico to pay for US military construction expenses.
That means that Mexico ends up paying for the wall.
What could go wrong?
Easy peasy.
10
This is absolutely unconscionable. Even if we assume that the immigration problem is really as bad as Trump claims (which it’s not), the wall won’t actually fix the “problem” so it’s just a huge waste of taxpayer money. And these kids are the ones who have to pay.
6
The chickens are coming home to roost. These are the real costs of a demagogue's lies and racism, inanity and ignorance. The wall (boondoggle) will cause vast environmental damage. It will, for instance, damage and possibly destroy the most important butterfly sanctuary in the world. But the wall will do little to stop the spike in arrivals that was caused by Trump's own brutal, racist, dishonest, inflammatory, immigration actions. In exchange for the wall, Trump would harm, among other things, the education of our young people, and harm a school that has been a bright beacon of tolerance and integration during turbulent times. Once upon a time, our mothers taught in such schools while our fathers served. These children and their families have the inalienable right to a good education, no matter what these Trump McConnell Republicans claim.
8
Not all bases have schools. Many bases rely on the cities, towns and counties to provide education and pay zero taxes to the school system or the municipal government. The cost of community services should be funded by all users.
4
@ebskye And many military bases inject millions in federal funding to the local community. Newsflash: military bases and the people they house actually help the local municipalities.
5
@ebskye
You are grossly misinformed. Local school districts with military dependents receive funding from the Department of Education; this funding is known as Federal Impact Aid. School districts LOVE this as the money goes into their general fund and they can use it however they wish, with no requirement to account for how it is spent.
2
The base being talked about is vast and stretches over two states as was pointed out in the article. The children who live on it and attend school there can NOT be absorbed into the local school communities.
2
It's mostly working class Americans who serve in the enlisted ranks of the U.S. military, and middle class Americans as its officers, so why would anyone expect Trump or his eunuch GOP sycophants in Congress to care about them, other than when needed "for show," let alone to care about their kids?
41
We shouldn't have military families or troops past the age of 28.
5
@Steve On the other hand, perhaps insisting that front-line American infantry units be comprised exclusively of previously non-military serving NRA member males age 65 and over from the 1% might solve several problems simultaneously. A lottery draft could be initiated to fill the ranks this way.
9
@Steve
By all means, don't let reality intrude on your pronouncements (like the President).
4
@Steve Then where would our senior officers and NCOs come from?
4
Trump is more and more strongly usurping all powers of governing to himself. The contravention of Congressional allocation of funds is done in the basis of a nonexistent emergency. The imposition of a tax on all Americans under the rubric of a “tariff”. The attack upon state regulations he simply disagrees with.
It’s called dictatorship folks, and the dictator doesn’t have our interests in mind.
54
Look at ALL of the funding that is being cut. Trump has removed funding for our European military installations/bases & NATO obligations, in particular Ukraine, leaving Europe wide open for Putin to roll right in with his tanks. Meanwhile, his wall contractors and private cage builders continue to rake in profits for a stupid, senseless wall. What happened to Mexico paying for it? Election security? Infrastructure repairs & building? Clean water & air regulations that have been overturned? Food inspections? Wake up America!
22
As retired Army major general, Paul Eaton said of this, only one of Trump's latest action, words, threats, is that it "is just crazy". Just crazy and full of harm is the Trump hallmark.
That wall that Trump told his supporters would be paid by Mexico (did they believe him or, is it just all entertainment for them?) is, according to Trump, to be paid by our tax dollars that are already allocated by Congress for the military and U.S. service members and their families.
Having just called Sen. Portman (OH), I learned from his staff person that both he and Sen. Sherrod Brown(OH) oppose this impulsive and crazy immigration solution to use these $$$$$ tobuild a 27 mile wall for a border that extends 1,954 miles.
I know it is all about pleasing his evangelical base who believe that government should be run on old testament biblical principal of a vengeful god and/or, hearken back to the 1950s when blacks knew their place, gays were in the closet and questioning authority was taboo.
Bottom line: Trump is crazy, impulsive and mean, doesn't research and plan and is incapable of being honest. Trump "crazy"
is more and more evident, more and more alarming.
56
@E C Scherr your spot on until the last sentence were you say he doesn't research. He did research prototype walls with nearly every Security Agency in the US and they all told him a wall would stop almost no immigrants. Then when they tested the durability of the current wall slat design they informed him that cheap tools could cut through it in an hour. Everything he does is well researched and he blatantly lies contrary to the results.
3
Once again, the Trump administration put children and families at the bottom of the priority list. This time, it's the kids of military families. Leaking classrooms, icy cold or steaming hot classrooms--how long would his own kids and grandkids tolerate these conditions?
It's time to call Trump's "border emergency" what it is: FAKE!!
22
It’s not just the school! Numerous bases have substandard housing (eg, mold, peeling paint), dangerous chemicals and waste in their water supply, and so on. This is especially true in North Carolina.
Why the military couldn’t find a way to thwart Trump for this particularly disgraceful act, just to keep his base happy, is beyond me.
But wait: Perhaps the rank and file, let alone the officer class, like Trump just fine and are willing to sacrifice their own kids and families in this way. Not much to do about folks who behave that way.
3
I'm an AF brat. I went to public schools and to DOD schools throughout my K-12 education. I went to elementary school in Bitburg, Germany, junior high in Ramstein, and high school in Wiesbaden. Eventually, I became a college educator.
I can tell you that the education at the DOD schools was fantastic: thorough and demanding. Each time we moved to the States, I went back to a public school and, whatever the grade, it was 2 to 3 years behind what I'd already learned. In Alabama, my teacher taught the class that it was currently the 19th century. When I disagreed, I got in trouble. In Virginia, I had the grand experience of attending Jefferson Davis Jr. high where we learned about the The Northern War of Aggression. (My dad was furious with the school). As a high school senior in Maryland, we were studying material I had learned in 8th grade in Ramstein, Germany.
I also went to Wiesbaden HS, so it grieves me to read that the Wiesbaden elementary school is getting the shaft for the stupid wall. The DOD schools are rigorous. Discipline is no problem because the parents are expected to keep their children "in line." And the complete integration of diverse students was an invaluable part of my education. These schools should be funded and honored, not put onto the trash heap of The Wall.
71
@JD
USAF brat here. Agree on all counts. Additionally, the schools I attended in the US and England were ahead of times. The schools were racially integrated both in regards to teachers, staff, and students. Mentally and physically challenged students were mainstreamed. For our parents, this high-quality education was a factor in deciding whether or not to continue serving in the military.
I vividly remember my dad showing up in class, in uniform and removing my brother after receiving a call at work regarding some misbehavior. Teachers had no problem maintaining classroom discipline. The entire family knew we were part of the military and were representing our country.
11
@JD
The military brass are the enablers. The military brass are the consenting adults. The military put Trump in the White House. The military sucks a trillion out of the Treasury routinely. Poor pitiful military families, bunk.
1
And I hope that America's service men and women remember this the next time Donald Trump proclaims how much he supports the military.
It's already evident why he says he "loves the poorly educated".
27
I read another article about DoD funding shifted out of Utah for the wall and, like in this article, they had quotes from locals about how they understood the need to divert the money because of how important Donald's Wall is. Utah and Kentucky are 2 of the whitest states in the country. Kenutcky's Hispanic population is 3%. How many of these people have ever even seen a Hispanic person? And they're telling us we need a wall. I live in Texas. We don't need a wall.
53
Ironically, most of the affected service members and their families probably support Trump and the Republican party.
9
Trump campaigns on building a wall, claiming Mexico will pay for it. There was even an audience participation routine at Trump’s rallies. Trump: “We’re gonna build the wall, and who’s going to pay for it?” Trump’s supporters: “MEXICO!”
Mexico refuses.
Trump claims Mexico will pay for it (somehow) through the magic of his “rengotiated” version of NAFTA. This is nonsense, but even if it weren’t, Congress still hasn’t ratified the “renegotiated” deal, and likely never will.
Trump demands that Congress appropriate American taxpayers’ money to pay for the wall.
Congress refuses.
Trump declares a “national emergency,” so that he can redirect American taxpayers’ money from other projects to pay for the wall. Now US military families are paying for the wall by involuntarily sacrificing the quality of their children’s education.
At what point will Trump’s supporters see this bait-and-switch fraud? They likely never will.
16
The border wall funding reallocation is just another example of Trump abusing his authority to take unilateral action in an emergency. The authority is reasonable when you have a reasonable president, but subject to abuse with a tyrant in office who always thinks he knows best.
Congress should immediately revoke much of the President's emergency authority, particularly all that he has abused. If the President vetoes the act, as he will, they should have the wisdom and courage to override the veto.
In the meantime, Congress should issue a finding of fact that no emergency exits with respect to the border, denying the President of the ability to reallocate Congressionally mandated funding.
I am reminded of a precedent for this from 1971 or 1972. Proponents pushed for the building of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. Opponents fought, in part by challenging the adequacy of the environmental impact statement required by law. They sued and might have stalled construction for years while the issue was battled in court. But the proponents succeeded in passing an amendment to another law stating that Congress found the requirements of the law were met. Opponents sued and the Supreme Court decided that Congress indeed had the power to interpret its own acts and the Congressional finding held. Pipeline construction proceeded.
Congress could quickly enact a law finding no emergency exists on the border. Hopefully enough Republicans would have the wisdom and courage to vote for it.
41
@Rocky I wish I didn't snicker when you said "enough Republicans would have the wisdom". Unfortunately since Moscow Mitch (yes, I devolved here to GOP-isms) said his "number-one goal was to make sure that Barack Obama was a one-term president" there has been a dearth of republican wisdom. It seems their only drive is a corrosive and malignant lust for power. Their strategy is division, their tactics are hate bigotry and fear.
26
Wait! Is this correct;
62 million divided between 552 kids = more than $112,000 per child!
Whoa! And, for only three years of education?
@cecz
This is for constructing a school, not textbooks and teachers pay for three years.
13
@cecz Because a new school is built for every new set of students? Sounds like those kids aren’t the only ones who need a new school.
10
@cecz
62 million for 552 kids every year for the next 20+ years. They're not building a school to use it for just three years.
17
If that military school does get it’s funding replaced, they ought to name it the NYTimes school. By highlighting a conservative project that will lose funding, i have no doubt Sen McConnell will find a discrete clause in the next appropriations bill to placate his, base.
A fake national emergency may be abuse of power, but our elected representatives bringing home the pork never has been. Junior senators- your time will come- in about ten years. So much for equal representation.
Meanwhile, I’m still wondering where the billions in FEMA, HUD money is being stashed (see yesterday’s story), waiting for bureaucracy to fund past disaster needs. While we dither over magic markerd maps, people wait- for a dysfunctional government to do what they are getting paid to do. Again.
12
There must be some mistake here, Mexico was supposed to pay for the wall, not the children of servicemen and women. I’m sure if someone draws this to the attention of that nice Mr Trump it will all get sorted out. Perhaps at his next rally?
33
According to a Pew Research poll from May/June '19, Trump enjoys a 57% approval rating among veterans.
You get what you pay for. Or, in this case, you don't get what you pay for -- and it still won't move the meter with Trump loyalists.
19
Trump and Miller want to build that wall, no matter who gets hurt in the process -go ahead, make military families suffer, take property from families who have owned it for generations, waste money that is really needed in a million other areas, all for that vanity project which will be inferior in every way to other methods of border security. Why are we letting two people jerk around the majority of citizens who are opposed and offended by it? T & M did an end run around congress and they are so far letting them get away with it!
19
Thanks, Stable Genius. THIS is exactly how much Trump and his minions care about the Military, and their Families.
Wake up, People.
22
Why would congress step in and restore funding to these projects, when the administration circumvented the will of lawmakers on this matter.
Restoring $3.6 billion in funding the president thought was better used elsewhere would be EXACTLY the same as funding $3.6 billion directly for the wall.
25
@Tim
But Congress needs to restore the $3.6 billion in funding - Trump needs to reallocate it for the next section of the wall.
1
It is amusing to read the scree of Lindsay Graham and McConnell when the blame the Democrats for not funding Trump Wall, Inc and indirectly the war on brown immigration.
McConnell, Graham, the remainder of the GOP legislators and the Trump supporters need to remember-for the first two years of the Trump nightmare the GOP was the majority in both houses. So, given that, why did McConnell and then Speaker Ryan not push through appropriations on Trump Wall, Inc?
Yup, politics as defined by con artists and liars.
68
OK. Now we truly understand the nation's new order of priorities: Trump's ego first, everything else after, but only if it dovetails with that ego.
So: substandard educational facilities for the kids of the military he supposedly loves? Wall first.
Defund important infrastructure projects on military bases and move those dollars to.... Yep, wall first.
Defund hurricane relief and rebuilding for the American citizens in the American territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands? Wall first, senor y senora.
Disrupt a conservative community of retirees who mostly voted for him - and their golf course? Wall first, MAGA hatters.
See a pattern? "Wall, wall, wall, wall...." Sounds a lot like "Wah, wah, wah, wah..." when a baby doesn't get its way.
And as if we didn't before, now we truly know our new national priority.
45
Also worth noting is that this week the Trump administration reduced the number of teachers at schools on military bases worldwide. There was also instituted a strict ban on classes with ten or fewer students. This does not sound as bad as it turns out to be. Some bases do not have large numbers of dependent students. So, if not enough juniors or seniors want to take an important class, even one normally taught in public high schools, tough.
36
Since the end of the draft, funding for and isolation of the military class has grown. We have created a large, permanent military class. Retired military comprise the teaching staff at schools on bases. This sounds like a closed loop. Wouldn’t it be better for children of military families to attend local public schools. Generals shouldn’t run schools; they should focus on the business of defense and leave education to civilians.
10
@JW, agreed, but since this is what we have now, what possible excuse is there to under-educate the children of the people we revere for putting everything on the line for our country?
12
@JW There is a military base in the county that I grew up in. The schools on that base report to the local school district and the buildings are jointly owned by the school district and the military.
So, not all schools are run by generals.
8
@JW
Not sure where you are getting your info, but as the spouse of a former DoDDS teacher, I can assure you that the majority of DODDS teachers are civilians recruited from the US with some military spouses in the mix. Also, DoDDS schools are for the children of military members stationed overseas. There aren’t any public schools for them to attend.
With very few exceptions, the children of stateside military members attend regular public schools.
5
In a word, despicable.
29
If I recall correctly, some military bases heavily damaged in previous hurricanes haven’t been repaired. Much military housing is in sad shape, with some having dangerous mold that affects health. We have no money to support our military service members, but Trump must build a wall that violates private property rights and does nothing to address the number of migrants appearing at the border to seek asylum. The Trump administration has slowed the legal immigration process so much that it now takes six or more years just to get a green card. There is such a backlog of applicants already in line for green cards that one estimate is that it could take 50 years just to clear that backlog! Yet Trump supporters keep saying that migrants should apply to immigrate legally. They and their children will have been killed by gangs or will have starved to death long before then. Instead of spending billions on private prisons for migrants, we should be spending to help Central American countries deal with their issues so that their poorest citizens can survive there.
154
Cramming 30, or more, in a classroom is already de rigeur in many public schools, mine included. For 25 years I taught in private schools in the US, or in international schools overseas, averaging about 14 kids per class. Now, in supposedly cutting-edge Seattle, I regularly teach more than 30 in our local public school. Our president is hell-bent on building his wall; we are already effectively building a wall between our educational "haves" and "have nots," with no end in sight. All students are deserving of a top education. The only walls we should be building are school walls.
91
The current US defense budget (2019) is about $693 billion. The amount reallocated for the wall is $3.6 billion, or 1/2 of 1% (.5%) of the budget.
I hardly think such a small amount is cause for alarm.
4
@Mon Ray The monies being used for Trump Wall, Inc, were not appropriated for the wall. Those monies have been misappropriated for the wall from military construction and infrastructure projects.
In other words, this money was destined, in part, for schools on bases.
12
@Mon Ray It is pretty clear that you do not understand what the total budgetary number means . Neither did you ever had to take decisions as to which item to cut during slow times.
The bulk of the total figure you give is for salaries of personnel. Then there is money for new equipment, NATO, Iraq, etc etc. Once you subtract that and other from the 693 billion you have the real number from which money is being taken out for the wall construction. That percentage is much higher than what you quote.
Also, were not the Mexicans going to pay for the wall?
15
@Mon Ray, then I respectfully suggest that you're missing the bigger picture.
10
For a wall that won't even fix the problem is purports to solve.
Ugh, politics.
13
The money meant to help the military and military families isn't really going to the wall. It is going to Trump contractors. Trump doesn't care about US security. Trump knows he is a one term president and is trying to make as many self serving deals while he can.
In the end, people are going to learn too late that Trump didn't care about the border, the military, or anyone but himself and the cost to learn this mistake will be in the billions of dollars of taxpayer money lost.
68
Oh well too bad. Maybe they will become active citizens and elect people who have education as a priority.
11
Children and their needs are very low priorities of the Trump administration. Gun violence in the US is soaring and it affects children disproportionately; children also get traumatized by the lock down drills. The weapons makers get rich, the children suffer. The EPA has been gutted--- pollution and lead-tainted water also affects children more than grownups. The polluting corporations get rich, the children suffer.
51
As I scan the headlines in this morning's digitized version of the NYT, I can't help but notice that there are no features regarding the diversion of military funding for the wall beyond this. Much has been made of the school, daycare etc projects to be delayed at a minimum.
Then I turn to the coverage of Trump including Alabama including some notable deaths, Johnson's disaster blah blah blah but I have had this nagging feeling that we are not watching the ball closely enough with Trump. Where is our attention being diverted from?
Then I see that in the items regarding pentagon funding that the entirety of our committment to the nation of Ukraine is being stopped. Also being stopped is money for the European deterrence fund to guard against Russian aggressions in a variety of locations. Then I recall Trump insisting that Russia should be readmitted to the G-8.
All that funding gone. Look!! Alabama
While I may be a cynic, I still pay attention. Trump is so clearly in Russia's pocket as i Moscow Mitch McConnell that we may be facing a crisis far larger than imagined. This money story will wash away in a week as Trump finds yet another thing to divert us. For me, there's no accidents happening here at all.
122
@Peter VanderLaan. Regarding Europe's defense ... Check out 50%of German tanks inoperable because Germany won't pay their share. 😉😉😉
1
@Peter VanderLaan, the ongoing "achievement" of the trumpist regime is creating so many bright shiny diversions that the real focus - their abject corruption, Trump's refusal to be president of the entire country, his stream of lies, Moscow Mitch's desk collapsing under the weight of passed Democratic and bipartisan legislation that he refuses to advance, the continuing open violations of the emoluments clause and darn near every other constitutional and societal norm - gets buried under a landslide of diversions. I hold every Republican in office who refuses to stand up against this torrent of illegality and immorality personally responsible. They all need a permanent vacation from government.
22
@Sergeant Altman
It would be interesting to see a source for this claim.
13
I don't think the current administration has a clue and they need to focus on what really matters and education is very important! Security is also important but these kids are our future and what are we teaching .
18
"We would not be here if the Democrats were serious about border security"
Didn't the Dems propose to give $21 billion in funding for the wall that Trump and Miller declined? So this would seem to fall squarely in the lap of Trump and Miller.
Also, sheer political brilliance by the White House, we stole money from schools to build the wall...now look the Dems are stealing money from our military schools by not approving the funding the next go round....
15
@Fifth Circuit Bar
After all these years the Dems still have not figured out how to message. Always a day late and a dollar short, holding the bag for Republican malfeasance
2
President trump would rather fund an inanimate object that has no real merit instead of taking care of the children - our future. There is no concern here just to make his wall promise work out. Remember he said that Mexico would pay for the wall. Where is that promise? Mexico outsmarted trump.
35
Get used to it. The military is second to the Liar in Chief's political fake news (all his justifications for a wall) and his base.
Like giving Medals of Freedom to old, white basketball players--sure they contributed to the game but how did their careers promote freedom? How are they so distinguished from all the other great players from that era? Maybe because they actually accepted Trump's invitation?
17
Why does a school cost $62 million?
1
@Jill McTaggart why does a wall cost $3.6 billion?
27
A: To give billions more to billionaire CEOs (who donate millions to Republicans and Trump) that our “government” hires as contractors to build the wall.
6
this is utterly reprehensible. why is this man allowed to rape our land? i am elderly and in poor health, but without these conditions i would move to canada. the country i grew up in is gone.
16
I hope other service members watch where this administration's priorities are -- boondoggle construction projects-- versus the well being of them and their children. Then decide whether they wish four more years of the same.
140
@Mitch. Retired enlisted here. I will take 4 more years and smile.😉😉.
@Sergeant Altman
But why?
12
@Sergeant Altman Thank you for your service, Sergeant. I would prefer our military might used to rescue our neighbours in the Bahamas or our brothers in Puerto Rico or just standing at the ready, trained and fit. That's not Trump's America. And to get re-elected, don't be surprised if your fellow servicemen and women end up in otherwise meaningless wars while Trump holds off the truth by giving (socialist) subsidies to suffering farmers and praising trickle down windfalls for us working poor while the deficit climbs.
11