Trump's ballroom

Robert Reich  - 400M for Trump's ballroom?

On top of:

-$1.5T for the Pentagon

-$170B for ICE and Border Patrol

-$1B to refurbish Trump's Qatar jet

-$496M to send National Guard into cities

-$230M for Trump's DOJ "compensation"

-$100M for Trump's golf outings

But nothing for working people

The Hill -  Senate Republicans aren’t in the mood to vote on legislation to greenlight President Trump’s controversial plan to build a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, as some GOP lawmakers see it as a bad political move in the current political climate, especially if it would require taxpayer funding.

Republican senators generally support Trump’s call for the construction of a ballroom where the historic East Wing once stood, but some of them are warning that spending any taxpayer money on the project would be politically “tone-deaf.”

“Is it good politics to spend taxpayer dollars on a ballroom right before the election? Absolutely not,” said one Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the internal debate within the Senate GOP conference.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday that legislation sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally, to authorize $400 million for the construction of a ballroom and underground security complex will have to wait — despite Graham’s pressure on the GOP leader to hold a vote immediately.

“Right now, our goal is to get DHS funded and get the reconciliation bill done as quickly as possible. We’ll have, I’m sure, that conversation with our colleagues about that,” Thune said.