Here are some recent “objective” “journalistic” headlines:

• House Republicans Try to Blow Up the Border Deal They Claim to Want.
• House Republicans Attempt to Thwart Senate Immigration Deal.
• A Border Deal to Nowhere? House GOP Ready to Reject Senate Compromise on Immigration

With the backing of the MSM, the Democrat-controlled Senate thinks it has the GOP-run House right where it wants it.

Just hours after his inauguration — with a stroke of his pen — Joe Biden torpedoed all border policies of the Trump administration that were working. Despite Mayorkas, KJP, and Biden himself lying with a straight face daily, we have a completely open border. We’re the only civilized country on planet earth to do such a thing. And the cost of opening up the border was probably about $50 — the cost of a few gold Cross pens to hand out to some of his colleagues as they stood by clapping like seals. It’s their deliberate policy, not a lack of resources. However, they would like for all of us to believe that in order to close it back up, we will have to throw billions of dollars at it. And if the Republicans don’t agree to that, the blame for the open border will somehow shift to them.

Joe the Corrupt Plumber

Imagine a homeowner who has a leaky faucet in the bathroom. He looks online and sees, “XYZ PLUMBING: WE’RE #1 IN THE #2 BUSINESS.” The homeowner thinks that one sounds good, so he gives the plumber a call. It turns out the plumber — we’ll call him Joe — wasn’t #1 at anything except corruption. As soon as he arrives, he turns the water on full-force and plugs up the overflow hole in the sink. So before you know it, the bathroom begins to flood.

Then he calls the homeowner in and convinces the not-so-bright fellow that he has a catastrophic leak problem. A problem so big and complex that it will cost him $5,000 to fix it. In reality, there was nothing complex about it. If he wanted to, the dishonest plumber could fix it as easily and as quickly as he caused it. He would simply have to shut it off, and it wouldn’t require any money to do that. That’s what is happening at our southern border. Except to complete the analogy to represent what’s about to happen at our border, you would have to say the plumber took the $5,000 and drove off without fixing it.

Don’t Go Soft, GOP, Don’t Cave

House Republicans, you have stood by and watched for over three years as Biden has decimated the border. Now do you want to aid him with an appearance of taking action just before the election? And do you really believe he will take any meaningful action anyway? Democrats want additional money only to more efficiently “process” those hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who cross every day and give them more diapers, debit cards, cell phones, and free airline tickets to the places of their choosing. The funding is not to enforce the law.

The Hill noted that R.J. Hauman, head of government relations and communications at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said, “At this point, they might as well change the name of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to U.S. Customs and Border Processing.”

But the American people have wised up, and they see right through it. Biden has a 32% approval rating on the border issue, an all-time low of any president in history. Even that begs the question, “Who are those 32%?” Biden … Kamala … Mayorkas … their spouses and kids … but who else? I guess the drug cartels somehow got to participate in that poll.

“A Stupid Use of Money?”

Remember the good ole days when Trump asked for a mere $8.6 billion for a border wall, and the Dems shot it down? (And had it been completed and bolstered with other measures, we would have gotten a “bang for our buck” for decades.) Then Senator Kamala Harris called it, “a stupid use of money.” Fast-forward to now: The House Homeland Security Committee released a report in November that estimates the crisis at the border under Biden has cost the American taxpayers almost half a trillion dollars. And yet, this administration is trying to extort more money out of Congress. Biden is currently begging for $14 billion in an “urgent budget request.”

They’ve used a lot more resources than Trump used when he gave us the most secure border in modern history. Click here to see a graph of the total apprehensions and expulsions at the southern border by year; the numbers are staggering.

In Trump’s first year, there were 310,531. There were that many last month alone under Biden. And here are the apprehensions of individuals on the terrorist watch list:

All four Trump years combined: 11

First three years under Biden: 282

(Source: CBP/Rob Schmitt Tonight on Newsmax)

The DHS Pays Bloggers to Attack Donald Trump

But here’s the thing: Even if you’re convinced they really do need money to close the border (which they don’t), do you actually believe they will spend the money you give them for that purpose? If so, I’ve got a winter home in Antarctica I would like to sell you.

Just last week, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) blasted Mayorkas for weaponizing taxpayer dollars to attack conservatives. In Hawley’s letter to Mayorkas, he pointed out that the agency gave $700,000 to an activist group in order for them to “write blog posts that criticized Donald Trump and other conservatives under the guise of ‘media literacy.’”

Same Old, Tired Washington Playbook

Moreover, the Democrats want to tie “securing” the border to aid for Ukraine. These bills should all stand alone … at least the more important issues. Men and women in Congress should be able to cherry-pick what they want — cafeteria style — and not have to take the eggplant with the meatloaf. Look, I agree that Putin is a bad actor, and it’s a bad thing for him to invade other countries regardless of their political persuasion.

But I’m getting weary of the warmongers like Lindsey Graham who never met a war he didn’t like. They want to provide an endless supply to Ukraine, a country that is wildly corrupt and provides no accountability. But even if Ukraine was spending it responsibly, (A) we can’t afford it, (B) the European countries in their backyard should step up to the plate and do their part, and (C) we should take care of our own border first! I think we could apply Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:5 (on judging others) to our foreign aid: “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

The Dems will try to spin the border crisis and a government shutdown on the GOP, but Republicans should call their bluff. I think the American people are smarter than that. Every state is now a border state, and everyone feels the pinch. And they know exactly who’s to blame.

Nolan Lewallen is a retired pilot of a major airline and lives near Stephenville, Texas, with his wife, Kim. Nolan’s two greatest passions are the Bible and politics. His latest book, The Integration of Church & State: How We Transform “In God We Trust” From Motto to Reality, brings the two together.