Back to episode — Episode 332 Scott Adams - Wondering Why Wall Funding Can’t be Negotiated in Public
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But let's talk about wall funding. The president just had a press conference with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in which they started sort of negotiating in public in front of the press. And Nancy or Schumer said, you know, let's not negotiate in front of the press, blah blah blah. Now if you're not up to date on what the problem is with the wall funding, I would like to explain it to you in a t…
← Previous segment →And here's the question I ask myself: Why can't they negotiate in public? I can see lots of topics that you would not want to negotiate in public. For example, trade negotiations, you definitely don't want to do that in public. Decisions on national defense, you do not want to do that in public. Discussions about how to change a law, you know, that's brainstorming. You don't want any of that stuff in public because people will just be throwing in ideas. It's too early. There are lots of things I would not want to see negotiated in public.
But this one thing, the question of the wall and border security, I really want that negotiated in public. Why not? You could make a good argument there are lots of things not to negotiate in public and the public is better served by that. But this is not one of those. This is a situation that the public is perfectly capable of understanding and all the brainstorming has been done. We basically understand the entire topic, thanks to talking about it for three years. So as a citizen I request of my government that this absolutely should be negotiated in public. Period.
The border security should be negotiated in public. And I want to see how they get around the choice of words, whether it's a wall or a fence. I want to see the President of the United States ask Chuck and Nancy in public, do you think that a solid wall and a fence are equally good protection? I want to see him say, suppose we have different solutions for different places, but for the important parts where there's the biggest problem, is it okay if we use the best technology?
How about if the president simply said this, negotiating in public: Well Chuck and Nancy, neither you nor I are experts on construction of walls and fences and what to do. How about we make this deal: Give us X amount of money and our experts will decide where it needs to be a wall and where it needs to be something else. Why don't we not act like we're good at that because we're politicians, and why don't we let the experts decide where to put a wall?
I would love to see this negotiated in public. Trump is likely an expert? Well he's not. Trump knows construction but who is an expert on building barriers on the border? That's a pretty small expertise.
Context —
And the other thing that was hilarious about this is I saw that the press, whatever you call it, talking to Pelosi and Schumer afterwards. And then Schumer were arguing these technical budget things. You know, it sounded like, well we've offered a CR like last year but the continuing resolutions, the process. And I'm just listening to it going, I really don't know what you're saying. We don't care…
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