Sun-Sentinel: Wasserman Schultz says President Trump is stealing from military to fund ‘vanity’ border wall

Sunrise, Fla., September 6, 2019
“We cannot allow this president to turn our national security into some sick reality TV plot,” Wasserman Schultz said in the Democrats’ national weekly address, in which she called the wall “a wasteful solution to a manufactured crisis that intoxicates his base and turns our service members into political pawns.”
SUN SENTINEL
Wasserman Schultz says President Trump is stealing from military to fund ‘vanity’ border wall
By Anthony Man
 
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz criticized President Donald Trump on Friday for “stealing” military construction money to pay for his “xenophobic vanity wall project” on the U.S. border with Mexico.
 
Delivering the national Democrats’ weekly address, Wasserman Schultz said the wall is wasteful, a boondoggle and a monstrosity.
 
The Broward/Miami-Dade County Democrat is chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs.
 
“We cannot allow this president to turn our national security into some sick reality TV plot,” Wasserman Schultz said in the Democrats’ national weekly address, in which she called the wall “a wasteful solution to a manufactured crisis that intoxicates his base and turns our service members into political pawns.”
 
The video of Wasserman Schultz’s remarks, which will be available for viewing on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s YouTube page, was released Friday. The weekly address started as the other party’s response to an address given every week by the president from 1992 until Trump discontinued the practice.
 
During the 2016 campaign, Trump said he wanted to build a wall on the southern border, and repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for the wall.
 
Even after it became clear Mexico wouldn’t pay, the Republicans who controlled the House and Senate didn’t give Trump money for the wall.
 
Instead, Trump earlier this year declared a national emergency and said he would take money from elsewhere in the federal budget to begin wall construction.
 
This week, the Trump administration followed through on that move, announcing it was diverting money away from projects that benefit the U.S. military.
 
Wasserman Schultz said Trump’s move would “steal $3.6 billion from projects that the military requested” for schools for service members’ children, base firehouses, flight simulation facilities, roads and clinics.
 
Earlier Friday, U.S. Matt Gaetz, a Panhandle Republican, tweeted in support of Trump’s move. “Our nation’s borders are a military priority and a vital component of our national security. President @realDonaldTrump’s decision to use military funds to secure our southern border is a legitimate and necessary action,” Gaetz wrote.
Read the original story here:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-wasserman-schultz-trump-military-money-wall-20190906-d2nsnq253rghdconufg5dphlfe-story.html