Posted on 12/04/2014 12:24:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind
This was the bill proposed by conservative Ted Yoho that would, if also passed by the Senate and signed by Obama, block Obama’s authority to remake immigration policy on his own. I … thought we had a Constitution that does that, but I guess we don’t anymore. Obviously, a bill like this isn’t going to get past a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, which means this was an empty gesture designed to show grassroots righties that the leadership shares their concerns about O’s power grab even if they’re not prepared to play hardball to stop it.
The burning question: With House tea partiers complaining that the bill was meaningless and ineffectual, could Boehner still find a majority to pass it? Yup, as it turns out. Although he needed a little Democratic help to cross the 218 threshold.
JUST IN: House votes 219 to 197, 3 voted present, to block Obama from changing immigration laws by executive authority
— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) December 4, 2014
Three Democrats voted yes while seven Republicans voted no and another three Republicans voted “present.” The roll isn’t out yet so we’re not sure who those 10 GOPers are but I’ll update as soon as it’s available. The White House, incidentally, has already all but promised to veto this bill. If Boehner had wanted to make Obama choke on it, he could have followed the Lee/Cruz plan by inserting this as a rider to a spending bill that would fund the entire government for a few months. That way, Reid and Obama would have a stark choice of either approving the money with this condition attached or else blocking it and bracing for the resulting shutdown. Instead, by splitting Yoho’s bill off from the “cromnibus” funding bill that’ll be voted on later today (I think), Boehner made it easy for Democrats to oppose Yoho’s language without risking any standoff over government funding. The name of the game here for Republican leaders is no shutdown, no shutdown, no shutdown. The solution was an empty gesture.
While we wait for the roll, here’s something from the Weekly Standard to chew on. Next year, after the “cromnibus” has passed and the new Republican Congress takes up funding for the Department of Homeland Security again in March, Boehner and McConnell will be prepared to pull the plug on DHS money if Obama doesn’t rescind his amnesty, right? Right?
John Boehner said he would not commit to bringing up a bill to strip critical funding from the Department of Homeland Security in the next Congress. Instead, the speaker of the House says there are “lots of options” for blocking President Obama’s executive order on immigration. At a Thursday press conference in the Capitol, Boehner did not guarantee the House would vote to block or cut off funding from DHS once Republicans had control of both houses of Congress in 2015.
“There are a lot of options on the table,” said Boehner in response to a question from THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “I’m not going to get into hypotheticals of what we could or couldn’t do. But I do know this. Come January, we’ll have a Republican House and a Republican Senate, and we’ll be in a stronger position to take actions.”
They’re gonna cave, because at the end of the day they fear pissing off Latino voters in 2016 by fighting O on amnesty a lot more than they fear pissing off conservatives who’ll go to the polls and vote against Hillary no matter what. Stand by for updates.
Update: Aha. Turns out it wasn’t the tea partiers who voted no.
Focus was on tea party, but GOPers Denham, Ros-Lehtinen, Valadao, Coffman, Diaz-Balart — all w large HIspanic constituencies — voted no
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) December 4, 2014
Update: Here’s the roll. Republicans voting no include the five named above by Benjy Sarlin plus Louie Gohmert and Marlin Stutzman. The three Republicans who voted “present” are Paul Gosar, Steve King, and Raul Labrador. And the three Democrats who voted yes are John Barrow of Georgia, Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, and Colin Peterson of Minnesota. Barrow lost his reelection bid and McIntyre is retiring so neither had anything to lose.
The GOP camp has been infiltrated by the enemy(D), bought off, and hornswoggled.
From: http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/amnesty-shocker-the-secret-behind-obamas-order/
The White House appears to have engaged in administrative sleight of hand, changing U.S. immigration law not by executive order but by a memorandum “exercising prosecutorial discretion” Johnson signed the day of Obama’s Nov. 20 nationwide address that so far has not been filed in the Federal Register.
Tom Fitton, president of Washington-based watchdog institution Judicial Watch, told WND in an interview the legal status of Johnson’s memo is a serious constitutional question that deserves to be adjudicated.
“The entire implementing authority involves a memorandum published by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson that changes the immigration law, directing federal money to be spent that has not been appropriated by Congress,” he said.
“In my view, there is a serious question whether Jeh Johnson should be impeached for taking this action, and a criminal investigation should be initiated to determine how and why federal funds are being misappropriated,” he declared.
won’t bother me.
No they haven't. Those liberal are registered republicans. Conservatives were yelling that before the election, and predicting crap like this.
Some people had to hold their nose, and vote R one more time.
/johnny
“The Senators and Representatives ... shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution”.
- US Constitution, Article 6, Clause 3
By the way, Senators and Reps CAN be impeached; it just hasn’t happened since 1797.
Based on the above, I can count on one hand the number in Congress who Shouldn’t be impeached.
I honestly believe that we could pick 535 random names out of the phone book and this country would be better off.
I for one am certainly relieved to know that that we’ve now solved the problem of symbolic illegals.
This and a dime wont get you a cup of coffee
That's what I thought that Jeh Johnson sent a 'memo' regarding the treatment of illegals. Basically prosecutorial discretion.
Probably because this is only SYMBOLIC and he knows it’s a joke on citizen voters.
Exactly my thought, too.
It’s all a bunch of fun and games to the Boehner & Co Circus.
Used as a shot across Obama’s ship......that’s all it is but non the less remains to be seen if effective.
I suspect a response from Obama will be to ratchet things up even further....he loves the “war”.
Have you passed this information onto the clowns of Capitol Hill who probably were asleep at freshman orientation or who don’t want to be the first to point out this extra-legal supposition?
What is it with these Republicans and their symbolic bills?
I'm sure they have staff that know what EOs Obama has signed.
/johnny
Frankly, I have given up trying to figure out why the idiot GOP does the things they do.
Ok, so tell us what should they pass at this moment to stop an EO that has not been issued, that will be considered in a Senate they will not control until Jan?
As they say in da hood, "Burn the motherf***er down!!!"
I don’t want symbolism, I want action.
I want Congress to block Amnesty, and if that is vetoed zero out Michelle Obama’s dessert budget in retaliation.
I want Congress to fund FedGov departments one at a time and then not fund anything connected to Amnesty or Obamacare.
I want Congress to use the power of the purse to restore freedom and the rule of law.
RE: I want Congress to fund FedGov departments one at a time and then not fund anything connected to Amnesty or Obamacare.
As I wrote above, the House has to be prepared for another government shutdown.
Funding departments one at a time will inevitably need to be SIGNED by Obama and he’s going to use that to exercise his veto power.
This Congress does not have the 2/3 majority to override any of his vetos. Therefore, it will ultimately boil down a test of wills because a SHUTDOWN will be inevitable.
I personally would not mind that. I am not so sure if the majority of Americans will want that and who they will blame when it happens.
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