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demmiblue

(39,906 posts) Tue May 5, 2026, 07:21 AM Yesterday

NEW. The Senate Judiciary and HSGAC reconciliation bills are out...$1 billion for Secret Service ballroom work

Here are the Republican priorities. This is the budget reconciliation package the GOP has to pass alone because democrats held their ground and refused to fund ICE and CBP.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2026-05-05T02:53:19.730Z

â€œ.. The funding would come in legislation authored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, which would allow for Republicans to pass the money over Democratic objections.

@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2026-05-05T11:21:31.260Z

12 replies

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Highlight:

NEW. The Senate Judiciary and HSGAC reconciliation bills are out...$1 billion for Secret Service ballroom work (Original Post) demmiblue Yesterday OP

Disgusting. SunSeeker Yesterday #1

Krasnov is very good at laundering money, gab13by13 Yesterday #2

Half is a generous estimate Bettie Yesterday #4

Kick orangecrush Yesterday #3

Yet, we can't afford daycare. spanone Yesterday #5

A meeting hall gilded with solid 24 carat golden ornamentation's so the American Nazi Republican Party can hold their,. magicarpet Yesterday #6

Looks like another 65 billion to rendition immigrants to prison camps, 1.5 billion for federal criminal enforcement. Midnight Writer 22 hrs ago #7

This is FUCT UP Akakoji 22 hrs ago #8

MaddowBlog-Republicans want to spend $1 billion in taxpayer money on Trump's $400 million ballroom LetMyPeopleVote 22 hrs ago #9

So, What Happened To... GB_RN 22 hrs ago #10

White House officials said that the legislation would authorize the entire project -- including the aboveground ballroom LetMyPeopleVote 13 hrs ago #11

Trump admin's official position is that almost EVERYTHING in the ballroom is security-related. LetMyPeopleVote 13 hrs ago #12

SunSeeker

(58,364 posts)

1. Disgusting.

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 07:23 AM

Yesterday

gab13by13

(32,624 posts)

2. Krasnov is very good at laundering money,

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 07:44 AM

Yesterday

I expect that half of that 1 billion will end up in his bank in Qatar.

Bettie

(19,815 posts)

4. Half is a generous estimate

Reply to gab13by13 (Reply #2)

Tue May 5, 2026, 08:29 AM

Yesterday

I expect that he's pretty much stealing everything.

Remember, one of tthe things he hates the most is paying people for work.

But, he hates a lot of things, a staggering amount really, because he's just a big ball of hate wrapped in human-like skin.

orangecrush

(30,884 posts)

3. Kick

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 08:11 AM

Yesterday

spanone

(142,006 posts)

5. Yet, we can't afford daycare.

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 08:30 AM

Yesterday

fuck these fucking republicans

magicarpet

(19,221 posts)

6. A meeting hall gilded with solid 24 carat golden ornamentation's so the American Nazi Republican Party can hold their,.

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 08:31 AM

Yesterday

,... local German American Bund meetings and rallies as they parade around as American Firsters swearing allegences to this country while they stab it in the back - as they committ various act of treason against it.

The lines between American Democracy and American Fascism have become imperceptible with both cheerfully mixed, blended, and melded together where these two distinct entities of political philosophies of governance have been combined, blended, or merged to form a single, unified, united and inseparable whole. And the American taxpayer is now being expected to foot the entire bill to build this monument as The Grand Hall to American Fascism at the very seat of our government, while attached to the People's White House in a Washington DC.

Can we have a robust Sieg Heil,... if you kindly would,... Please.

The only thing we can do is submit ourselves to all this madness.

My retort,...

FUCK ALL THIS & FUCK ALL THAT & FUCK THESE NAZIS.

Midnight Writer

(25,661 posts)

7. Looks like another 65 billion to rendition immigrants to prison camps, 1.5 billion for federal criminal enforcement.

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 09:36 AM

22 hrs ago

Priorities, don't you know.

Akakoji

(553 posts)

8. This is FUCT UP

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 09:49 AM

22 hrs ago

Make noise people!

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,437 posts)

9. MaddowBlog-Republicans want to spend $1 billion in taxpayer money on Trump's $400 million ballroom

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 10:05 AM

22 hrs ago

The controversial vanity project was already unpopular. The GOP’s planned use of public funds is poised to make matters worse.

When the latest polling showed 2-to-1 opposition to the WH ballroom project, the survey question emphasized private financing.

Now congressional Republicans want to spend billion in taxpayer money on a 0 million project.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-05-05T12:57:58.925Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republicans-want-1-billion-taxpayer-money-trump-ballroom

It was against this backdrop that GOP lawmakers unveiled the details of their reconciliation bill, which included an unexpected element. NBC News reported:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, [on Monday night] released his committee’s part of the long-term Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding bill, which includes $1 billion for security features related to the White House ballroom.

The funding could not be used for non-security elements, according to the legislative text.

To be sure, the proposal isn’t just about the ballroom. On the contrary, Republicans are pushing a $72 billion reconciliation package that includes, among other things, more than $38 billion for ICE, roughly $26 billion for CBP and an additional $5 billion for DHS.

To the surprise of no one, the bill also ignores the reform measures Democrats began pushing after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota......

But it’s the $1 billion for “security adjustments and upgrades” to Trump’s ballroom vanity project that’s likely to be among the most controversial parts of the Republicans’ plan.

In case this isn’t obvious, the White House boasted last summer that the price tag for the ballroom would be $200 million, and every penny would come from private donations. By October, the price tag had grown to $250 million. Soon after, it was $300 million. Late last year, it was up to $400 million — though, again, the official line was that American taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for the costs at all, even as the White House went out of its way to hide the identities of donors......

Put another way, congressional Republicans expect the public to pay $1 billion for a $400 million ballroom.

We’ll learn soon enough whether and to what extent the legislation changes in the coming days and weeks, but for now, GOP officials should probably keep in mind that polls show 2-to-1 opposition to the White House ballroom project, and that’s when the survey question emphasized private financing. Watch this space.

GB_RN

(3,581 posts)

10. So, What Happened To...

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 10:26 AM

22 hrs ago

“It will be paid for by private donations. No taxpayer money will be used”?

Yeah, yeah. It’s a rhetorical question.

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,437 posts)

11. White House officials said that the legislation would authorize the entire project -- including the aboveground ballroom

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 06:49 PM

13 hrs ago

Senate Republicans maintain their proposal would authorize security construction, but not Trump’s ballroom. The White House disagrees.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/05/senate-budget-bill-trump-ballroom

Senate Republicans late Monday proposed $1 billion to pay for new White House security measures, with lawmakers and White House officials disagreeing over whether the legislation would cover President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom.

The proposed legislative text says the money would be used for both aboveground and underground security features that the administration has declined to fully detail. The text explicitly says the money could not be used for “non-security elements” of the project, a reference to Trump’s planned ballroom.....

White House officials said Tuesday that the legislation, if enacted, would authorize the entire project — including the aboveground ballroom.

“Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement, citing the high-profile incident last month when a gunman stormed through the security checkpoint outside the White House correspondents’ dinner. “The proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”.....

Trump has argued that the ballroom itself is a needed national security measure so he and future presidents can safely entertain VIP guests, a message increasingly echoed by his allies in Congress after last month’s incident. Justice Department officials last week asked Leon to dissolve his order blocking construction, citing the shooting at the correspondents’ dinner in a rambling legal filing that read like one of Trump’s Truth Social posts.....

Democrats argued Tuesday that the proposal illustrates that Republicans are out of touch with voters’ needs, highlighting the broadly unpopular ballroom. Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose Trump’s decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing to make way for his planned ballroom, funded by about $400 million in private donations, while 28 percent support the project, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted last month.

trump will use the $1 billion for the entire project including the aboveground ballroom. There will be no funding by private donations.

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,437 posts)

12. Trump admin's official position is that almost EVERYTHING in the ballroom is security-related.

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Tue May 5, 2026, 06:57 PM

13 hrs ago

trump wants US taxpayers to pay the entire cost of the ballroom

Link to tweet

The reconciliation bill says that Trump can’t spend the $1 billion they gave him for the ballroom on “non-security” features.

But the Trump admin’s official position is that almost EVERYTHING in the ballroom — from the walls to the columns to the ceiling — is security-related.

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