Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer thinks he’ll be able to put pressure on his Republican colleagues and possibly get enough of them to block President Trump’s southern border emergency declaration. He might be right.

Republicans are reliable for two things: cutting taxes and increasing the military’s budget. On everything else, including immigration, you can't count on them.

The Senate already voted earlier this year to block Trump’s emergency order, which gave him the power to dig through Pentagon furniture cushions for change that he might use to build more wall on the border. There weren’t enough votes in Congress to override Trump's veto.

But Schumer on Tuesday moved to force another vote after the White House was able to come up with a measly $3.6 billion by redirecting money given to the Defense Department for other planned projects.

The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that Democrats are “hoping the vote will be politically uncomfortable for Republicans facing potentially tough reelection battles in states that will lose money for military construction projects to pay for sections of the wall.”

No hope needed. The natural resting position for Republicans is “uncomfortable.” Did you see now-former Sen. Jeff Flake nearly go into shock when he asked for a third delay in Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation vote? Did you see the look of sheer terror in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s eyes when he was expected to move any kind of legislation at all (aside from the tax cut)? Have you seen Sen. Ben Sasse’s hair part?

Some Republican senators are from states that will lose money because of the emergency order. If they go along with the absolutely absurd Democrat ploy, they might as well hand the Senate's keys over to Schumer now because they’re finished even before the 2020 election.

What good is holding power in the Senate if Republicans don't want to use it when it really counts?

They're all ready to hide under their beds when it comes to dealing with an actual emergency at the border.

Schumer on Tuesday melodramatically warned that Trump’s executive order “rises to a large and vital constitutional issue: Does our country truly have checks and balances, particularly when we have such an overreaching president?” He bemoaned the “dangerous precedent that would set if presidents may declare national emergencies every time their initiatives fail in Congress.”

Sorry, but where was that soliloquy when President Barack Obama, on his own, set up an entire national program that protected one million-plus illegal immigrants from deportation?

And where are Republicans on that?! Instead of challenging Democrats on that point, they're worried sick that the money directed toward the border is robbing their states of other little projects, like a new elementary school or more military bases. All of that can wait.

The border, meanwhile, cannot wait. It’s under siege, with nearly one million migrants having crossed this year. The immigration courts are already backlogged by about one million cases.

How many more is it going to take? We can’t be the welfare net for all of Central America and it has to stop somewhere. Now is a good time, given that the numbers are exponentially higher than any year in at least the last five.

Senate Republicans can’t be counted on, but maybe they’ll realize that there really is an emergency at the border, and that their other projects can wait.