On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” Representative John Garamendi (D-CA) stated that President Trump diverting funds from the Pentagon to fund a border wall must be stopped, and if President Trump is allowed to go forward, “the power of the purse has been taken away from Congress, and we may not even exist in any meaningful way in the future.”

Garamendi said, “We have to stop it. There is absolutely no choice about having to fight back on this. And this is going to be one big, big battle. Not only because of the effect, as you so correctly pointed out, on our relationships trying to push back on Putin, making sure that he doesn’t have the opportunity to overrun Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which he could do in three short days if we were not there, if those countries were not part of NATO. Beyond that, this is a fundamental issue of the Constitution, the very democracy of America is at stake here. If this man, this president is able to literally appropriate his money for his own purposes, then the balance of power, the power of the purse has been taken away from Congress, and we may not even exist in any meaningful way in the future.”

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