Sunday School 1/21/18

Did you think maybe they'd be talking about the government shutdown in the classrooms today? You'd be right.

On CNN's State of the Union, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney talked to Jake Tapper about the difference between a government shutdown and a government shutdown. Meaning, the one in 2013 was a good one because then-President Obama owned it, and this one which is a bad one and not something that current president Trump owns.

Tapper showed the old clip of Trump talking about government shutdowns:

Problems start from the top, and they have to get solved from the top. And the president's the leader and he's got to get everybody in a room and he's got to lead. In 25 years and 50 years and 100 years from now, when the government is - you know, when they talk about the government shutdown, they're going to be talking about the president of the United States. Who was the president at that time. They're not going to be talking who the head of the House was, the head of the Senate. 

Mulvaney explained the difference between then and now, focusing on Trump having meetings "in the days leading up to" the shutdown as counting for being actively engaged, compared to Obama in 2013.

President Obama did not engage in that process. I know. I was there... we never heard from the White House. We actually believed they wanted a shutdown. That's the difference here. President Obama wanted a shutdown so that he could weaponize it and make political points out of it, which is exactly what he did.

Never mind that Trump has been reportedly only been talking to Republicans, not Democrats, which would be exactly consistent with 2013.

Mulvaney himself went on the record back then about whether the shutdown was worth it, in another clip Tapper shared.

It was. Any time you fight for something you really believe in, and something you think is important, then the fight is -- the fight is going to be worth it. If you stand up for what you believe in, I think you'll always end up on the right side of things.

Tapper asked if that wasn't what the Dems were doing.

Not really.  And here's the difference... we were voting against a bill we did not like in 2013. 

Alrighty, then. We are on the right side of things, and they are not.

On Meet the Press, Chuck Todd talked with Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs, who let us know that the president was all over this shutdown, having talked to several Republican leaders (but no Democrats) yesterday, and to a Secretary or two and one of his Generals as well, to make sure he understood what was going on. And, we were told, he was working in a bipartisan way last week - same as Mulvaney told CNN - to try and avoid a shutdown.

Short suggested that Dem votes had nothing to do with anything other than denying Trump's accomplishments.

...when you look back over the last year and you see record tax relief...Supreme Court justice confirmed...more justices confirmed at the circuit court level that any year in American history, repeal of the individual mandate, you see all the things the administration has done and they're being held captive by a base in their party that is angry. And they're responding to that base. This is not about policy, Chuck. It's purely about politics. 

Short let us know, as did Mulvaney said earlier, we're on the right side of thing, and they're not.

We got a second dose of Mulvaney today; he also dropped in on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Most of what he said was the same, but he did have more to offer on why this happened, including those archaic rules in the Senate that honor the minority by requiring 60 votes (Trump is again calling for Mitch to go nuclear), for example. Wallace pointed out that they couldn't even get all of the Republicans to vote for this. Twice he pointed out that only 46 Rs voted they way they were supposed to. The third time, he hit hard.

CW: The point is, you do not have your house in order. You have only 46 Republicans supporting this

MM: And again, if you had 10 or 15 Democrats and it still failed, I think your point is fair. But right now, until you have at least nine Democrats, we cannot open the government.

CW: Well, you don't have 51 Republicans either.

MM: Right, but again, short of nine, what difference does it make? Without nine Democrats, this government is not opening. 

Which means, in a nutshell, the Rs aren't unified and they don't care, because it doesn't matter because Benghazi the Dems are to blame.

Wrapping things up, Wallace asked him to handicap the chances of getting the government open.

I really do believe that at heart here, there was an interest by some folks in the Democratic Party to deny the president sort of a victory lap on the anniversary of his inauguration, the chance to talk about the success of the tax bill, success of the economy and jobs. And I think if they get over that, there's a chance that this thing gets done before 9:00 on Monday morning and folks would come to work.If that doesn't happen, it could go several days because I think there's other Democrats who want to see the president give the State of the Union during a shutdown.

Again, alrighty then one more time. Not only do they not care about policy, or have any principles, the Dems are a bunch of  crybabies trying to deny the president his just desserts.

Meanwhile, a couple of things about that  "weaponizing" comment Mulvaney made on MTP. First, here's the childish message on the White House switchboard yesterday:

Thank you for calling the White House. Unfortunately we cannot answer your call today because congressional Democrats are withholding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate. Due to this obstruction, our government is shut down.

And second, here's the ad  - complete with the "I'm Donald Trump and I approve this message" statement - which our friend Marc Short tried to convince Chuck Todd was released by an "outside organization." In the ad, Democrats are said to be complicit in any murder committed by an illegal immigrant.

It's pure evil. President Trump is right: build the wall, deport criminals, stop illegal immigration now. Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants. President Trump will fix our borders and keep our families safe.

I think it's clear whose weapons are locked and loaded, don't you?

See you around campus.