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.@DouthatNYT writes that Trump is using emergency declaration 'to build the border fencing that the Democratic Party and his own political incompetence have denied him.' The situation is a little more complicated than that. Two things... 1/5 ow.ly/Rda830nJhLg
@DouthatNYT One, Trump proposes to use four sources of money for barrier, three of which--$1.375b directly from Congress, $601m from Forfeiture Fund, $2.5b from MilCon anti-drug fund--do *not* require an emergency declaration. So majority of funding does not rely on declaration. 2/5
@DouthatNYT And two, rather than denying him, Congress specifically appropriated money ($1.375b) for Trump to build barrier. It's as if Congress passed DACA, but just to cover fewer people, and Obama then used executive authority to expand it. Obama would have been in stronger position. 3/5
@DouthatNYT Trump is doing something recognized by this and previous Congresses as good policy, and proposing to use combination of non-emergency and emergency authority to spend more on it than this Congress directed. Not embarking on policy Congress has forbidden. 4/5
@DouthatNYT More here: 'A glass quarter-full reading of Trump's border deal.' 5/5 End. washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/column…
