February 17, 2019

Duckworth: Trump’s Decision to Steal Funds from Military & National Defense is Harmful to Our Country

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – This morning, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined Martha Raddatz on ABC's This Week to discuss how the President's decision to declare a national emergency to try to fulfill a campaign promise is a reckless abuse of power and how stealing funds that Congress allocated for critical defense projects is harmful to our country. Video of the interview is available here.

Key Excerpts:

“(This is) just a fulfillment of a campaign promise that he hasn’t been able to keep. The President is abusing his power, declaring a national emergency to fulfill a campaign promise and really not addressing the issues that we are facing.

…

“Frankly, the President is trying to take the power of the purse away from the legislative branch. We are co-equal branches of government and he's trying to do a type of executive overreach and it's uncalled for. If he wants to appropriate more money to put more agents at the border, to put more people at the ports of entry, to go after drug [trafficking], we can have those conversations, but to take money away from defense, from DOD, in order to build this wall that's essentially a campaign promise, I think that's very harmful to the country.

...

“Let me tell you the kind of things that are on the table to be chopped right now. A crash and rescue station in Peoria, Illinois, at an airport that I flew out of as a helicopter pilot for 15 years. That's on the table. Construction of rifle ranges where we send troops to become marksmen so that they can be more lethal on the battlefield. Recovery efforts in places like Tyndall Air Force Base, places where we’re recovering from hurricanes. Pads and hangars for the new F-35 fighter jets.”

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