We’re on the record opposing the ridiculous idea of having the Pentagon pay for a barrier wall on our southern border.

But the U.S. House of Representatives just can’t quit the idea. Or, to be more precise, members of the House keep batting down attempts to preclude Pentagon funds from being spent on a wall. Just during the month of May there have been two failed attempts to instill a little fiscal discipline on this bad idea.

The first attempt was when the House Appropriations Committee was considering the bill that funds, among other things, the Pentagon’s military construction projects. An amendment was rejected that would have prevented any money from being spent on the border wall. And while it makes perfect sense that any money for a wall must come from the Department of Homeland Security budget and nowhere else, the amendment by Reps. Cuellar and Wasserman Schultz was rejected by a voice vote.

Then, just a couple of days later, when the House Armed Services Committee was considering the Fiscal Year 2019 Pentagon policy bill, Rep. Gallego offered an amendment prohibiting Pentagon funds from being used to construct a border wall. Unfortunately, this common sense amendment was “substituted” for a toothless “Sense of Congress” amendment by Rep. Byrne about the importance of protecting the nation’s borders.

At Taxpayers we’ve said it many, many times:

1) the largest number of people in the U.S. illegally are people who came here legally on visas and then stayed past the expiration date. A border barrier will do nothing to reduce that population.

2) The Pentagon can’t be used as a piggybank to meet all the funding requirements of the federal government.

We’ll keep saying it.