Why the Schumer Shutdown backfired

We all know how the government shutdowns usually go. Democrats demand something unreasonable. Republicans awkwardly try to push their agenda forward. The left-wing media act as the PR firm for the Democrats. The Republicans get blamed. The government shutdown is over. Not this time.

What was different? Several things. First of all, trying to tie the DACA demands to a continuing resolution to keep the government functioning was transparent. DACA doesn’t expire until March 5. There was no need to throw it in the mix of a spending bill. Times past, however, the Democrats would’ve gotten away with it. They didn’t this time.

One of the reasons is the brilliant framing of the argument by President Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mick Mulvaney so cleverly labeled this particular government shutdown ‘The Schumer Shutdown.’ The alliteration was irresistible to even the left-wing media who picked up the phrase and ran with it.

There was also President Trump himself. Nancy Pelosi cackled that the president had nothing to do with the negotiations. He had everything to do with them. Speaker Paul Ryan said as much himself. He said they were passing a bill that Trump would sign. In reality, the person who had nothing to do with the negotiations was Pelosi.

After the Schumer Shutdown took hold in the minds of the American people it was simply a matter of time. The longer the government stayed closed, the worse it became for the Democrats. They were stunned. They’ve never lost one of these. No matter the outcome, they were always able to pin it on the Republicans. This time they couldn’t.

Had we had any other president it might have been business as usual. If Trump knows one thing it’s how to negotiate. What the Democrats failed to recognize is he doesn’t have to have DACA. To Trump, it’s a bargaining chip. To the Democrats it’s everything. What they don’t know is they already have it.

The one thing the Senate Republicans did screw up was pushing the continuing budget resolution down the road only three weeks. That pushes it up near the deadline for DACA and Democrats will surely try to tie the two together again. That’s why having Trump involved is so important.

Remember where this whole Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals thing started. It was a ploy by President Obama to put a different face on illegal immigration. He could find some girl who was dragged over here at six months old who spoke perfect English and was the valedictorian of her school. That was supposed to erase the image of the tattooed MS-13 gang member who was butchering people in the streets for kicks.

The DACA folks (and they’re not kids any longer) were never in danger of being deported. Think about it. The only person who could’ve deported them was Obama. And he issued an order to protect them. From whom? Himself? No, it was all a publicity stunt to get the American people to believe they were in imminent danger of being deported. The Democrats have told that lie so long they now believe it.

So, Trump wants the wall. He wants an end to chain migration. He wants an end to the lottery visa. In order to get it he’s willing to give the Democrats something they already have. As I’ve said, it’s like selling New York the Brooklyn Bridge. They already own it.

The cards have already been dealt to give Trump what he wants. The House and Senate Republicans have to just not screw it up.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.

Don't fall in love with a DREAMer

The dreamer streamer continues unabated on our southern border. Kids are showing up on our country’s doorstep who are here to take advantage of President Obama’s open invitation of his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He couldn’t get the DREAM Act passed in Congress so he did what he always does. He acted alone.

You know, there’s an irritatingly adolescent disconnect with this president. He petitions congress for things he wants done and then says, “If congress won’t act, I will.” He doesn’t

have the authority to act unilaterally but there’s no one with a backbone in congress to stop him.

DACA is supposed to be for children who were brought to this country when they were young and who have grown up here but it’s acting like a magnet for people all over Central America. These folks have figured out how to play the game. Here’s how it works. The parents sneak across first. Since there’s relatively no border control now their chances of making it successfully are very good. Traveling with children slows them down and increases their chances of getting caught so they leave their kids behind. Then they send money back to pay to have their kids come across.

Children crossing over is a totally different matter and with the message Obama is sending the world it’s no wonder they’re coming in droves. But here’s the really outrageous part. These kids are represented in court for free by organizations like The Safe Passage Project. They dispatch high-powered lawyers to argue for asylum. It’s not a difficult argument. The federal government places these illegal children in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The department is just what it sounds like. They’re in the business of resettling kids in the United States.

But here’s where it really gets ironic. These pro-bono lawyers take advantage of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). This is a designation for kids under 21 who’ve been abused, neglected, or abandoned by at least one parent. Safe Passage says about 90 percent of these kids qualify for that designation. Their parents have abandoned them in Mexico or Honduras or wherever and came here to America. The judges routinely rule in favor of asylum and order the kids reunited with their parents who broke into our country and abandoned their kids in the first place.

Think about that for a moment. If American parents abandoned their American children the Department of Health and Human Services would make sure those parents never saw those kids again. Heck, there was one case recently where DHS was trying to take a 15-year-old boy away from his father because a kid at school complained that the boy was twirling a pencil in class like a gun. I’m not kidding.

This whole situation is absolute insanity. And in the middle of it all Obama held a ceremony honoring DREAMers who received temporary amnesty under DACA. I understand the motivation on the part of the people who welcome all these illegals. They see future Democrat voters. Obama says these DREAMers are the key to this country’s success. If they’re so wonderful, do we have the right to steal them from their native countries? If they’re so great, wouldn’t their own countries benefit from their greatness?

Truth is, they’re certainly no better than American children and most will end up as wards of the state or in prison. You thought the third world was bad? Just wait. The third world is no longer down south. It’s here.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.