Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
From what I understand he used executive powers to waive restrictions to allow construction of some wall.
The actual wall construction was part of money that was appropriated in 2019, before Biden's presidency. The WH says they tried to get the money reallocated to spend on something else but that wasn't approved.
So the White House is saying that they have no choice but to proceed with the construction, as is DHS:
Biden himself said today that he doesn't think more border wall will help.
That's the White House story anyway.. But I think the White House could opt to NOT spend that money at all if they can't spend it else where...
So Fox and the right are criticizing Biden for lying about saying he wouldn't build any new wall and now is building new wall.. if you believe Biden he's doing it because he has to.
But what it feels like to me is they probably think that some more barriers would actually be helpful but don't want to be seen politically as building a wall after being "anti-wall" (whatever that means).
I mean all of this is stupid, Obama built barriers, barriers probably make sense in some cases (fences, bollards, whatever). But like everything else it's a giant political football and everyone has to be either on one side or another with no room for nuance.
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Yeah, appreciate the summary as I haven't had a chance to look into all the details. I suspected this might be a case of 'use it (funding) or lose it', but also assumed that optics and perception was driving some of the messaging.