Obama Is Losing the Argument About Syrian Refugees

Slate ^ | November 19, 2015 | Jim Newell

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Obama administration's ability to defeat Republican legislative proposals to cut off the resettling of additional Syrian refugees hinges on maintaining unity among Democrats, who might be politically tempted after the Paris attacks to side with the GOP's restrictionist rhetoric.

So far, it's not going very well.

Forty-seven House Democrats sided with 242 Republicans to pass the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act on Thursday. That's a veto-proof majority among the 426 members who voted today. One can see why: It's a clever piece of legislation. Though it doesn't explicitly ban resettling additional Syrian refugees or institute Sen. Ted Cruz's "Christians only" policy, it does make the task of resettling said refugees bureaucratically arduous. The legislation requires the FBI director, the secretary of Homeland Security, and the director of National Intelligence to certify that each Syrian (or Iraqi) refugee doesn't present a security risk. And then the DHS inspector general has to go through all of the approvals, too. The effect would be to slow the acceptance of refugees to a crawl, putting in place the freeze Republicans wanted under the inconspicuous message of "just another layer of vetting." That's enough cover for anxious Democrats to support it-or rather, enough pressure that they can't vote against it.

You could see this coming....

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Kabuki theater. It’s in the bag.

[CGASMIA68]

Obama is lost

[gov_bean_ counter]

Don’t be so sure. This is a big national issue and if Dems don’t vote to override they can kiss any hope of retaking the Senate or closing the gap in the House.

[Paladin2]

Dingy says NO!

Where is Yertle?

[Oldeconomybuyer]

There shouldn’t even be an argument about this issue.

[NEMDF]

He will never see it as losing an argument. He only will see it as the rest of us being too stupid to understand him, believing that he is at such a level ABOVE us common taxpaying/voting people, that our views are irrelevant.

[uncitizen]

Forty-seven House Democrats sided with 242 Republicans to pass the American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act on Thursday.

only 47!!??!!

[samtheman]

There shouldn’t even be an argument about this issue.

---

The proof that the dem party is criminally insane is that there is an argument about this issue.

[dartuser]

Doesn’t matter if he is loosing the argument ... he will let the refugees in anyway ...

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

He’s utterly insane.

[C. Edmund Wright]

what would it take for you to say something was more than Kabuki Theatre?

I don’t think there is such a level.....

[MamaB]

Nah, he knows exactly what he is doing and that is to destroy this country by any means necessary,

[CMailBag]

Maybe John Roberts will determine that Obama is UNFIT for office and remove him...

[AlphaOneAlpha]

So, here is where we are with our clown president's real record:
Foreign policy is a complete failure
A veto-proof vote on Middle East refugees passed in the House
There is s steady failure of Obamcare exchanges, it collapsing

[martinidon]

Will not matter, two things will happen. 1. Dingy Harry and dems will filibuster. or 2. If the house attaches it to a omnibus bill the dems will vote for it and then vote against the veto override. The dems can say I voted for it....

[jsanders2001]

There’s this thing called truth that defeats lies every time. Reality has a tendency to factor into the equation too.

[jsanders2001]

When you give legislation a cool acronym it usually passes. The HERO thing in Houston was caught after everyone realized it was a Trojan Hirse to rape and molest thank goodness...

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Just how many Syrians does it take crossing our borders Douche Bag Obama before your light bulb comes on???

[DoughtyOne]

If Roberts could find an insanity clause in the Constitution, he would simply declare Obama a legal tax.

After the events in Paris on 11/13, I will be adding
this to my posts for the next week. I'm certain our
turn is coming again soon. We stand united against
Islamic extremists.

Some music for reflection if the mood strikes you.
Courtesy of: Kartographer
beautiful [02:23]

An honorable mention also goes out to Lassana Bathily , a Muslim immigrant from Mali.
Mr. Bathily sheltered customers at the Jewish Deli and helped police by providing info
on the terrorists, and providing the location of survivors in the deli.
Courtesy of: Tijeras_Slim