By COLlive reporter
Remember the Iran Deal? The Obama Administration will make sure you won’t forget.
A dispute over the cut of anti-terror funding for New York City was used by a White House official to settle score with U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer over his opposition to Obama’s deal with Iran.
This week, Schumer stood alongside Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City’s Police, Fire and Emergency Management Commissioners to advocate the full funding of the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) program.
“I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, UASI is the cornerstone of effective preparedness and prevention against terrorist threats and enables the NYPD to do all they can to keep New Yorkers safe and secure,” Schumer said.
“It makes no sense for the administration to slash critically needed anti-terrorism funding, especially at a time when we are all on high alert,” he stated.
Mayor de Blasio, a fellow Democrat, agreed with him.
“Anti-terror funding is no place to cut corners,” he said. “It is no secret that New York City is one of the world’s top terror targets… As a city and as a nation, we cannot afford to lose this essential funding at a time when we face increased threats.”
In its proposed 2017 budget, the White House plans to reduce money for the urban protection funds from $600 million to about $360 million, the New York Daily News reported.
According to Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, the cutback would remove $90 million from the city budget and kill funding for the NYPD’s “entire intelligence analyst program.”
As a response, the White House resorted to perry politics.
“At some point, Senator Schumer’s credibility in talking about national security issues, particularly when the facts are as they are when it relates to homeland security, have to be affected by the position that he’s taken on other issues,” White House spokesman John Earnest said.
The press secretary referenced Schumer’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal approved last September, the New York Daily News. Schumer was one of only four Democratic senators to oppose the agreement.
“He was wrong about that position, and most Democrats disagreed with him,” Earnest said of the three-term Jewish senator. “And when people look at the facts here . . . they’ll recognize that he’s wrong this time, too.”
Nuf said
Is this a democracy? Senator Schumer has lost all ‘credibility’ because he opposed a bill by Obama to give Iran the ability to further its nuclear threat? It seems that if your going to stand up for something, you have to be prepared for an organized backlash by ‘uncle Sam’.