Once again, the country has come to the brink of a government shutdown after Republicans threatened to hold it hostage over border security demands. This, after they rebuked a bipartisan, comprehensive border reform package at the 11th hour because Donald Trump wanted to help his own election campaign.
The bipartisan Senate border bill that Republicans rejected last month would have provided $6 billion for immigration detention and deportation efforts and would have hired at least 1,600 new asylum officers and 1,300 Border Patrol agents to meet demand. Still, it was never voted on in the House, all because Mr. Trump thought its passage could help President Biden politically.
This vicious strategy of depriving the government of the bare minimum it needs to succeed and then campaigning on its inevitable failures must end. The extremists in the House majority aren’t making America great again. They are making it worse off than it has ever been before.
David Trone, Washington
The writer, a Democratic representative from Maryland, serves on the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security and is seeking election to the Senate.
