President Trump, and America, dodged a bullet with the Chinese Virus bailout bill he signed on Friday. But he also missed an opportunity [Trump Signs $2 Trillion Bill as U.S. Virus Cases Pass 100,000, The New York Times, March 27]. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t get the goodies she wanted, the bill does nothing to slow immigration, which brought the virus to the U.S. (and is also, incidentally, Electing A New People). It will even spend $350 million on “refugee assistance.” So Trump missed the chance to push a nationalist agenda and listened to subversive Stupid Party hacks who would import more foreign workers. To right the ship, he must follow his nationalist instincts—and rally the people he expects to vote for him on Election Day.
The $2-trillion bill met no real opposition. The Senate vote was 96-0, while the House passed it by voice vote. The only lawmaker who tried hard to block it: Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie. Massie’s NumbersUSA grade for this Congress is A-minus and he has a Career B, but his objections were pure Tea Party circa 2009: the bill was “big government” and cost too much money. He did not mention any immigration issue House passes $2 trillion coronavirus package—but not without last-minute drama, by Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris, Politico, March 27, 2020]. Trump, Republicans, and Democrats attacked him for making lawmakers fly back to Washington D.C.in the middle of a quarantine
Apparently, the only thing that worried the Beltway Right was $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts [Bailouts for NASA, Smithsonian included in coronavirus package, by Ebony Bowden, New York Post, March 26, 2020]. Not a single Republican mentioned immigration…despite its undeniable connection to bringing the dread Asiatic pathogen to the American heartland.
Here’s what should have concerned Republicans more than the summer performances of the subversive Hamilton at the Kennedy Center:
Border security is critical to stem the Chinese Virus, which Trump well knows. That’s why he ordered the immediate deportation of illegals apprehended at the border with Mexico and might militarize the border with Canada [Justin Trudeau says the Trump administration wants to station troops near the Canadian border to prevent illegal crossings, by Michelle Mark, Business Insider, March 26, 2020].
Yet on the virus bill, a perfect chance to appropriate money for a border wall, Republicans fumbled yet again.
One wonders if the GOP ruling class simply wants to keep cheap labor coming into the country for Big Business, regardless of the ultimate consequences..
To his credit, Rep. Matt Gaetz noticed the provision and called it an “America LAST” poison pill.
Millions of Americans need help now. Dangerous poison pills like $350,000,000 for "Migration and Refugee Assistance" put America LAST.
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 25, 2020
Democrats: This is not the time to advance your legislative agenda.
This is the time to put #AmericaFirst. pic.twitter.com/1N9ArCVr5V
Bad as all that is—and it is bad—not all was lost, at least as far as what was omitted. Illegal aliens are excluded and won’t get Trump Bucks or be eligible for Medicaid [The Senate Relief Bill Provides Economic Relief — But Not To Some Immigrants, by Joel Rose, NPR, March 26, 2020].
Also missing: many items on Pelosi’s wish list, such as blocking universities from reporting the immigration status of students and (in keeping with her party’s Coalition of the Fringes) same-day voter registration, permitting Democrat political operatives to deliver write-in votes; and stringent racial-socialist “diversity requirements on businesses receiving federal aid [Nancy Pelosi’s 1,400-Page Coronavirus-Relief Boondoggle, by John Hirschauer, National Review, March 24, 2020].
Additionally, the final bill cut out a demand from 15 Democrats, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Somali Muslim refugee brought to the United States on the taxpayers’ dime, for the government to stop deportations. That Flying Squadron of the Treason Lobby also wanted all aliens slated for deportation to be released from custody [Omar joins 14 Democrats calling for ICE to halt deportations because of coronavirus, by Andrew Mark Miller, Washington Examiner, March 21, 2020].
Nor did the final bill include the brassy request from the Anti-Defamation League and other left-wing nonprofits for more taxpayer funding. The ADL had demanded a bailout for “charities” having a rough time thanks to a potentially fatal pathogen that was imported partly thanks to ADL’s advocacy of Open Borders.
That’s all well and good, but more can and must be done. As I have written before, Trump’s response to the Chinese Virus is otherwise solid. He has emphasized strong borders, immigration controls, and economic nationalism as the solutions to the crisis. He has beefed border security and limited immigration during this time.
But again, and quoting Robert Frost, he has promises to keep and miles to go before he sleeps!
For now, Trump can focus on two key proposals, the first of which requires a reversal of a policy announced just last week.
“The H-2 program is essential to the economy and food security of the United States and is a national security priority,” the State Department said in a memo.
What?!
More than 3 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, and millions more will probably lose work before this crisis is over [A record 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits as the coronavirus slams economy, by Heather Long and Alyssa Fowers, The Washington Post, March 26, 2020].
What is Trump—or his DHS—thinking?
Trump should reverse that tomorrow. Stop the work visas by executive order and a directive to DHS. If Democrats oppose it, tell the Americans put out of work by the Chinese Virus that the Party of Pelosi values corporate profits more than American workers.
Second: propose full funding of a wall with the help of Rep. Gaetz and other immigration patriots. That bill should end all Chinese immigration—for work, for education, or otherwise. Those who take up the issue will reap political rewards.
When Congress shoots it down, blame Pelosi and the Democrats.
“Build the wall” was the biggest selling point of Trump’s 2016 campaign, but given that he missed including it in the Chinese Virus bill, now is the time to act.
Fundamentally, Trump is in a strong position. Americans have seen the consequences of globalism not just in the loss of jobs and political cohesion, but now, in sickness and death.
If Trump overrides his staff and the legacy GOP Congressional leadership, he has a clear path to victory in 2020. But with this bill, he not yet decisively done so.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.
