Mark Levin: Justin Amash and Rand Paul wrong on the National Emergency Act

[Superfluous Man]

Is there any real emergency? According to Mark Levin an emergency is when congress doesn't have time to act. But congress acted. So what is the emergency?

Edit: This is really simple folks. If there is a hurricane congress doesn't have time to act so money needs to be moved around. Same thing if there is an earthquake or an actual invasion. Trump and his supporters calling a bunch of unarmed migrants an "invasion" doesn't make it so and doesn't make it an emergency. That said, the unarmed migrants [b]walked right up to the already existing wall!" This is stupid. And yes, some of my good friends on this forum have gone completely stupid over this immigration issue. They are as hyperbolic as Alexandria Ortega Cortez is about global warming and "In 12 years the earth is done" and all that crap.

I don't think hurricane responses do involve moving around funds. I think there's already funding appropriated in the budget for that, with the scope for how that funding can be used already defined. If a president wants more funding for a disaster response, he can use what's already there and request more, and Congress will generally vote quickly to provide that additional funding.

I've noticed that in all the discussions of national emergency declarations, people often bring up natural disasters as their examples. But if you look at how national emergencies have actually been used, it's never been for natural disasters. Nor have they been used (at least not successfully, and not since the National Emergency Act) as pretexts for the president to appropriate money for something Congress wouldn't fund.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._United_States

[Superfluous Man]

What Levin is saying is that there is open ended money in the budget set aside for emergencies that can be used to build the wall.

I think that's nonsense, and I'd like to know where Levin got that idea.

Again, if that money can be used to build the wall, then it would be because building a border wall would fall within the scope that is given to the appropriation of that money in the budget Congress passed, whether a border wall was specifically mentioned or not.

The whole reason Trump refused to sign the budgets Congress passed during the shutdown was because building a border wall didn't fall within the scope of how any of the money in those budgets was appropriated, above the approximately $1.4 Billion that they appropriated for a border fence that they very strictly limited in just how and where even that was to be built.

[juleswin]

[Brian4Liberty]

Has anyone responding to this thread addressed to what he is saying bedside Jon4?

There is plenty of nonearmarked money in the defense budget for Trump to build the wall. I don't think Levin did, but I quit listening after I got the gist.

The first words out of his mouth he cites the Defense Department and Army Corp of Engineers as the source for emergency funds for the border wall. I would investigate Mick Mulvaney’s details on how he has justified it.

As for my opinion of Levin’s arguments, as opposed to just stating the facts of what he said, he has no problem twisting interpretations to match his agenda, whatever that may be. Like many lawyers, he can weasel with the best of them. Similar to Alan Dershowitz. It’s constitutional when he wants it, unconstitutional when he doesn’t want it. Otherwise, he is a lawyer who has specialized in Constitutional issues, so he has interesting information at times. If one wants to study an issue, it’s worthwhile to listen to all sides before passing judgement.

[jmdrake]

Rand Paul may have just secured the 2024 GOP nomination with ^this speech! Think about it. It cost between $4,000 and $10,000 for a coyote to smuggle in a migrant. So for a mere $2,500 you can get a green card? Potential immigrants will jump at that which will dry up human trafficking. Meanwhile you get border wall funding and the Mexicans (and Indians and Chinese) will pay for it. Trump and the left both just got outflanked simultaneously.