Posted on 11/10/2014 9:37:01 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Heads he wins, tails you lose. As Gabe Malor says, this deadline is completely unserious: It’d be bad enough for Republicans to pass a weak immigration bill next year, but that at least would have the virtue of giving the GOP’s new crop of senators a crack at voting on it. Trying to sneak a bill through the lame-duck session, before Cory Gardner, Joni Ernst, and the rest of the freshmen have a say, would mean all-out war at this point between Boehner, McConnell, and the base. Joe Biden at least seems to understand that. That’s why he floated a mid-February deadline at Friday’s White House summit with the GOP before Obama gave him a death stare that shut him up. I think Obama understands it too, actually. His ultimatum here is likely born not out of ignorance of Boehner’s predicament but a new determination to make Republicans pay politically after they swamped him last Tuesday. Issuing executive amnesty so soon after a landslide is an act of supreme defiance of the election results, in keeping with last week’s “I’m listening to all the people who didn’t vote” press conference. And it’s also a middle finger to congressional Democrats who spent the last six months giving him the “Barack who?” treatment on the stump. If executive amnesty puts them in a tough spot too, screw ‘em. Besides, the only Dems left in Congress at this point are in states or districts so blue that they won’t lose in 2016 no matter how crazy he gets. He’s now fully entered the YOLO phase of his presidency.
Actually, maybe Obama doesn’t understand Boehner’s predicament. Here’s a tidbit from WSJ’s mini-bombshell on Friday about secret talks on immigration between the White House and the House GOP over the past year.
Mr. Obama offered Mr. Boehner what he saw as a compromise: The White House would defer executive action on immigration until after the summer to give the speaker maneuvering room, a deal Mr. Obama confirmed in his Wednesday news conference.
In the discussion, however, he followed up with his go-to talking point in dealings with Mr. Boehner: “There will never be another Republican president again if you don’t get a handle on immigration reform.”
Mr. Boehner resented getting advice from a Democratic president on how to make Republicans a viable political force. What he wanted was more specific: A strategy to build a coalition in the House that could pass a bill.
It became increasingly common, aides said, for Mr. Boehner to hang up the phone with Mr. Obama and sigh: “He just doesn’t get it.”
That has a ring of truth. Sounds like Boehner was asking him to deliver a certain number of House Democrats to help support a deal that would surely be opposed by House conservatives, but influencing Congress isn’t Obama’s thing. Remember when Harry Reid asked him for help twisting Mitch McConnell’s arm on presidential appointments and Obama waved him off? Reid and his staff have allegedly been stewing about that to this day. Or maybe this has less to do with O’s relationship with Congress than the fact that the guy simply doesn’t know how to horse-trade, a theory floated lately by commentators on both the left and the right recently. But now you see the beauty of executive amnesty: No matter how terrible you are at building majorities in Congress to support your agenda, you can always play your unconstitutional trump card and get your agenda enacted that way. I wonder which is the chicken and which is the egg there, in fact. Did O turn to executive orders because he’s a terrible negotiator? Or is he a terrible negotiator because he has no incentive to be a better one with that trump card in his back pocket?
Whatever the answer, if you believe WaPo, he’s eyeing an amnesty of around five million people, somewhere between the three million number that amnesty shills fear and the eight to 10 million figure that they’re hoping for. Watching these two (short) clips via the Corner, I’m amazed that Obama makes no attempt to explain why immigration is some sort of extraordinary problem that requires an extraordinary executive solution. The fear among liberals who are jittery about executive amnesty is that it’ll set a precedent that can be exploited by his Republican successor. E.g., President Ted Cruz could decide to lower income tax rates unilaterally, by executive order, while Congress bickers about tax reform. You would think, then, that O would go out of his way to explain why amnesty isn’t like taxes or health care or anything else but rather something unique and therefore without precedential value. Instead, Obama makes an expansive argument: His point here, essentially, is that there’s no real harm in him acting unilaterally because Congress can always pass a bill superseding his order. In that case, there’s nothing stopping President Cruz from installing a flat tax or suspending ObamaCare or anything else the GOP wants to do. So long as there are enough Republicans in Congress to deny Democrats a veto-proof majority in both chambers, his actions can’t be undone until a Democrat replaces him in the White House. The One’s setting an unbelievably terrible precedent — and making no effort to limit it. Wow.
That would be great, but boner don’t got no _alls!!! We need Trey Gowdy in as Leader!!!
I'll pass it myself!What kind of threat is that????
Hey Anti-Messiah: WE WON!
Yes, and playing mind games with him.
If the GOP is stupid enough to pass some bill at this point, they will see a wipeout of the GOP in 2016.
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Exactly right!..all of this discussion boils down to the above articulate, concise and eloquent statement. (The punk knows that either the R’s grant amnesty, or he will. Either way, we lose).
The GOP have another chance if they dont do the will of the people they too will be on the sh## heap of civilization. enough
Yep, chaos to no not seat anyone likely on 12/31 or 1/1/2015.
Obama has an ace in the hole. He can shut down the government and the Republicans will get blamed for it.
I would love to see Congress pass an immigration bill that strengthens enforcement, funds the border fence and creates a National Voter ID. And send that to the White House with a post-it reading “Or else what?”
A guy can dream, can’t he?
Not to worry. Boehner is already quivering in some remote corner of the House waiting until night fall to come out.
I just love the helpful and concerned progressive radicals who HATE the republicans offer helpful suggestions like “There will never be another Republican president again if you don’t get a handle on immigration reform.”
Re-electing Obama was a fluke. The democrats got hammered 2010 and 2014.
Call his bluff. Pass one. Pass one that orders the executive branch to deport every illegal alien that commits any crime including using false identification, failing to file a tax return, driving without a license, etc., and then grant amnesty to all illegal aliens who have not committed any crimes in the United States in the last 25 years and who leave the country within the next year and apply for entry under normal channels and get in line behind everyone else.
Then call it the Comprehensive Immigration and Undocumented Worker Amnesty Bill and send it to Obama’s desk.
We need a “Dump Boehner” (and “Dump McConnell”) effort.
Boehner to Odumbo, “You have until 6:00 PM today to resign”
Burn the illegals houses, beat their children, do not trade with them and make their lives a living hell if amnesty is shoved down owr throats.
illegals ? make that congress
Them too...
Obama, you no longer control DC.
Amnesty for millions of illegals in this Country is a slap in the face to everyone that came here legally.
I suggest you provide a real birth certificate to show you are here legally. I’ll bet you cannot.
Boehner will use president Urkle’s threat as COVER. Boehner WANTS amnesty asap.
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