Taking Money From Children of Active Military

As President Trump and the Department of Defense seek money to move from approved defense projects to the president’s border wall pet project…the Trump regime has stooped to another new low and siphoned off money meant for a new middle school at Fort Campbell KY, home of the revered 101st Airborne. Local Kentucky and Tennessee politicians aren’t taking too well to this.

I am going to cut and paste most of the article since it’s behind a paywall apparently:

A new Fort Campbell middle school to relieve student overcrowding will have to wait, after a Pentagon decision this week to reallocate $3.6 billion in defense spending away from military construction projects in order to build President Donald Trump’s border wall.

The $63 million Fort Campbell project is among those delayed in favor of 11 new projects that will make up 175 miles of new or reinforced border barriers, officials announced, according to the Military Times.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper made the announcement Wednesday.
Trump confirmed to reporters in the Oval Office that Esper has spoken with members of Congress to let them know of his decision and how it would impact their states or districts.

“I think he felt good about it. He feels it is a national security problem. I do, too,” Trump told reporters. “When you have thousands of people trying to rush our country, I think that’s national security.”

The middle school project would renovate the old Fort Campbell High School into a middle school facility. 

Middle school students on post are currently in a significant overcrowding situation. This resulted from the closure of Wassom Middle School, putting all middle school students into Mahaffey Middle until the renovation is done.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn said she was disappointed to hear of the decision on the middle school. “Securing the border and supporting military families should not be mutually exclusive,” she said.

“We had worked tirelessly with the committee, Department of Defense and the Fort Campbell community to be certain their needs were addressed in the Senate’s 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. We are in conversations now around this deferral and look forward to having more substantive information on the restoration of these funds in the near future,” Blackburn said.

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, was among the congressmen expressing outrage about the decision.

“President Trump has stooped to new lows in trying to illegally fund more border wall. His latest funding grab includes raiding $63 million that was slated to build a much-needed middle school at Fort Campbell,” Cooper said.

“Our troops and their families deserve better. Democrats are united in our opposition; it is up to House and Senate Republicans to stand up to the president and his unprecedented overreach.”

“President Trump should not be hurting the troops with young children at Fort Campbell this way,” Cooper said. 

Rep. Mark Green, whose district includes Fort Campbell, said Democrats are to blame for the border crisis, and he said he will fight to ensure the school is funded.

“As a soldier for 24 years with three trips to combat, no one cares more for our military families than I do,” Green said. “The failure of the Democrat leadership to address the border crisis has worsened our national security and stretched our social services for needy Americans to the breaking point. The president is using money from the 2019 budget to address the failure of Congress to act.

“Rest assured that I will be fighting to get the school funding, currently scheduled for February 2020,” Green said. 

Interesting little bit of finger pointing in the last few paragraphs. Everyone keeps forgetting that the GOP had majority hold on Congress for a good portion of the Obama administration, had all three elected areas for the first two years of the Trump regime, and failed to finalize any type of immigration reform during the Bush administration. And yet, other than the wall, the GOP has put forward nary a bill, proposal, or law to fix immigration. Nor have they stood up to the president’s constant bullying of immigrants or people of color in the past two plus years. And even now, there’s just lip service to stealing money for education from the quoted representative/veteran.

In the meantime children suffer. Of course we’ve seen how the Trump Department of Education seems to discourage investment in education, so stealing this money isn’t a surprise.

BTW: does anyone know how many feet of wall you get for $63 million?

Wisconsin is also losing some money in this round of diversions. $8 million earmarked for a gun range at Truax Field in Madison for use by the Air National Guard. Apparently the guard had other law enforcement and military ranges in the general area that they can use…so this isn’t as egregious as stealing money for schools. And I kinda wonder how a gun range costs $8 million but, I digress.

President Donald Trump’s administration is diverting $3.6 billion from military projects for the wall. According to a document posted online by the Washington Post, $8 million of it will come from a planned small arms range at Truax Field in Madison.

Capt. Joe Trovato, a spokesman for the Wisconsin National Guard, said the funding for Truax was to be awarded in March, with construction to begin in the fall of 2020. Now, the Guard uses ranges operated by local law enforcement agencies and also has facilities available at Fort McCoy, Volk Field and Camp Douglas, Trovato said. 

“The proposed range would provide an increased training ability and more efficient training operations,” Trovato said by email. “However, the 115th Fighter Wing can maintain its current readiness using the training ranges at its disposal.”