jh0400 said:
Both sides are absolutely in the wrong here. I have no issue with funding ICE, but the idea that some public reforms may be necessary, if for nothing other than optics, is reasonable given the unfortunate events that led to the deaths of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil during interactions with federal law enforcement. For almost anyone outside of the far right, that is not something we should be comfortable with.
On TSA specifically, the government has mandated these security checks, and everyone who flies in the U.S. pays a fee on their tickets to fund them. The government did not stop collecting those fees during the shutdown. It only chose to withhold the payroll funding those fees were intended to support, while still expecting employees to show up to work.
When a $40,000 per year government employee does not have the financial cushion to absorb missing multiple paychecks and is forced to drive for Uber or DoorDash just to cover basic expenses, the system breaks down. The result is four hour security lines at one of the nation's busiest airports while both sides point fingers at each other.
If we are explicitly charging travelers for the cost of TSA, then the workers should be paid to deliver the service that the government has already collected fees for.
FTR, one of the reasonable reforms was already agreed to by Trump without having to mandate it - body cameras.
Some of the other reforms the Dems want were not reasonable because they essentially handcuff the country from being able to enforce immigration which is what the Democrats actually want.
Bottom line: the Democrats are way more in the wrong here from the get-go by hijacking this in order to defund immigration enforcement.
The debate right now is how long do you want to play chicken with the Democrats with the fiscal year ending in September and mid-terms happening 5 weeks later. The Senate R's clearly didn't want to based on yesterday. There was nothing given to Democrats in that legislation except body cameras which were already agreed to and being implemented by Trump admin ahead of this legislation. However, that legislation was stopgap funding that is only through September anyway.
So, did the R's give up leverage by doing that yesterday vs fighting this out up to and beyond fiscal year end heading into mid-terms? That's the debate now.
