By Denny Gulino
THE WHITE HOUSE (MaceNews) – Here’s something you didn’t hear from Fiona Hill. The Export-Import Bank is good for another month. Wiretaps of the phones of terrorist suspects won’t be disconnected. One more thing, the military gets a 3.1% pay raise.
This nostalgia trip, news that used to news, is brought to you courtesy of the United States Congress, some of which is not involved in the impeachment inquiry. In fact, there’s a whole U.S. Senate that is finding other things to do, like prevent a government shutdown at midnight. And extend the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Congress is giving itself about a month to work out the FY2020 budget, trying to fit the 12 big appropriations bills under the already-agreed-upon $1.3 trillion spending cap, And decide how much President Trump gets this time around for the Wall.
If by some chance they hit a snag, it might be a Merry Christmas government shutdown, a lasting memory for all those government contractors who don’t eventually get their pay reimbursed.
So much for news that takes a back seat to the more momentous developments, international intrigue and superpower mischief – referring of course to Russia, a topic that rivaled Ukraine during the day’s impeachment inquiry session.
Also a side note about Afghanistan, that doesn’t make the headlines so much any more but where American soldiers are still dying. On Wednesday Chief Warrant Officer David Knadle, 33, and Chief Warrant Officer Kirk Fuchigami Jr., 25, died in a helicopter crash in Logar province while supporting a combat operation. Despite Taliban claims to the contrary, the Pentagon said it was not a shootdown.
That was brought home to reporters and camera folks at the White House when in late afternoon the press room intercom barked a notice to assemble right away at the ropeline below the South Portico to witness a presidential departure on Marine 1, something not on the public schedule for the day.
President Trump, who had just presided over the awards of arts and humanities awards in the East Room, was on the way to Dover Air Force Base, the port of entry for Americans killed in action. It was his third trip to Dover, trips he has said several times are the hardest tasks he faces, to stand with bereaved parents whom he has described as sometimes throwing themselves on the arriving coffins.
The two killed Wednesday brought to 19 Americans who have died this year in Afghanistan, six more than last year and taking the total since 2011 to more than 2,400 American dead.
There were other references to war dead during the day, notably the 14,000 killed in Ukraine in fighting with Russia-backed forces, some of them this week. The withheld American aid package, 55 days late in arriving, was fuel for the Ukraine fighters trained by American National Guard troops, the two witnesses at the day’s latest impeachment inquiry session explained.
It was all a reminder the foreign policy that is worked out over decades or formulated on the fly in a matter of months and the politics that can influence it, in capitals on the Potomac or the Moskva river, have consequences in human lives and the fate of nations.
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Contact this reporter: denny@macenews.com