How is it possible that Republicans are in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House yet the budget deal that has been struck with Democrats does not defund Planned Parenthood or provide money for a border wall?

Word has trickled out of Washington that a budget deal has been reached that will avoid a shutdown and keep the wheels of the D.C. establishment grinding along until September.

The budget fully funds every Democrat priority while throwing a few peanuts to the Republicans. The budget fully funds ObamaCare, despite continued bleating from Republicans about how serious they are about repealing and replacing the whole thing. This misbegotten budget includes continued funding for President Obama's flatly unconstitutional and illegal subsidies for insurance companies which were never approved by Congress in the first place.

The budget fully funds Planned Parenthood, despite all the repeated promises from the Republicans about how this chain of abortion factories must be stripped of taxpayer monies for chopping up babies and making bank off their little body parts.

The budget fully funds sanctuary cities, despite pledges from President Trump and Attorney General Sessions that federal grant money must be withheld until they stop breaking federal law by harboring illegal alien felons.

And the budget provides exactly zero dollars—as in $0—for a border security wall. None, zip, nada, despite promises from Trump from the beginning of his campaign until today that this would be his number one priority.

No wonder Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, is gloating today, and the Republicans are looking for a place to hide.

Schumer called the deal "a good agreement for the American people" that "takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table." 

He celebrated the uncontested triumph this budget represents for his party which doesn't, on paper, control anything in Washington. "The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren't used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders and increases investments in programs that the middle-class relies on, like medical research, education and infrastructure." 

And just to rub Republican noses in the whole mess, he crowed, "Early on in this debate, Democrats clearly laid out our principles. At the end of the day, this is an agreement that reflects those principles." 

The AP adds this brief paragraph to illustrate just how abject the surrender is of the Republican Party. "Democrats stressed that there is no money not only for a border wall, but also for a deportation force, and they said there would be no cut in funding for so-called sanctuary cities." 

Why, you'd almost be inclined to think that the Republican Party does not control the House, does not control the Senate and does not control the executive branch.

This is entirely unacceptable. I have a banner hanging on the wall of the studio from which I broadcast my daily radio show which says "NO MORE EXCUSES." We have given the Republicans everything they said they had to have to get things done in D.C., and the result is this shameful capitulation to Democrats on virtually everything of vital importance.

Spineless, snowflake Republicans melt into a puddle at the thought of a government shutdown, even though only 17 percent of the government actually shuts down, and all the federal workers who are furloughed wind up with a paid vacation.

It's hard to know what to make of this mess. No conservative Republican with guts can possibly vote for this thing. We did not send them to Washington to produce swamp gas like this. We sent them there because they promised us they would repeal and replace ObamaCare, defund Planned Parenthood and build a border wall. Anybody see any of that happening? 

The Republicans will use the excuse that the Democrats can filibuster the budget bill so they have no choice. This is lame. If the Republican-controlled Senate can nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, they can nuke it for legislation, including budget bills.

Schumer is the new king of the hill. He's controlling the entire legislative branch of government due to the linguini-spined Republicans who simply do not, as he does, have the courage of what they claim are their convictions.

Let's be honest here. Yesterday, feckless Republicans effectively inaugurated Chuck Schumer as the new de facto president of the United States.

Conservative Americans have until Friday to forcefully challenge their Republican lawmakers to vote against this monstrosity and put this budget out of everybody's misery. If government is to shut down, let it shut down. Democrats have repeatedly declared they are willing to shut down the government if their priorities are not represented, but you never, ever hear a Republican outside of Ted Cruz say the same thing.

Republicans, for whatever reason, live in cowering, towering fear of a government shutdown. The Democrats know it, which means they hold the trump card in every single hand that's played. They know for a certainty—because the Republicans have repeatedly declared that their number one priority is not the welfare of the republic but avoiding a government shutdown—that Republicans will fold every single time the threat of a shutdown is raised, even though it represents nothing more than a paid vacation for federal workers. This leaves them with no leverage whatsoever in any budget negotiations, and the de facto president knows it. That's why he, and not Donald Trump, is running Washington, D.C.

The one thing President Trump could do to recapture the initiative from Schumer and the feckless Republicans would be to pledge to veto this budget bill unless it defunds Planned Parenthood and includes money for the border wall. He can tell Congress and the nation, "If you want me to sign a CR, send me one that defunds Planned Parenthood and funds a border wall, or no dice. If the government shuts down, let it shut down." His base, the people who put him in the White House, will stand with him.

If conservatives lose this battle, the die will be cast for the remainder of President Trump's first term. Eventually the president will run out of executive orders to sign and actual legislation will need to be passed. Good luck with that.

Bryan Fischer is host of the two-hour weekday "Focal Point" program on American Family Radio.

This article was originally published at AFA.net. Used with permission.

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