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.
Michael Savage said one solution was for Congress to alter the statute on which the Executive Order was based/cited.
Change the statute, and the Executive Order is null and void.
Probably a good idea but I doubt the gutless wonder party will have the guts to do that.
/johnny
RE: Change the statute, and the Executive Order is null and void.
OK, they change the statute, which in effect becomes a new law, right?
Next question — WHO NEEDS TO SIGN IT INTO LAW?
Did my eyes deceive me? The conservative stalwart Steve King voted “Present”?
Why?
It will be important to know the names of these ten RINOs.
Bingo. We don't need a law that says the executive branch cannot violate the Constitution.
This is absurd.
You can’t make this crap up!! In the 1850 we had the “Know Nothing Party” But now the republicrats embody the “DO NOTHING” party. What we want is to stop funding the uncostitutional power grab by the White House. We want obama care defunded. WE HAD A LANDSLIDE VICTORY BECAUSE WE SHUT THE GOVERNMENT DOWN FOR 2 days and invigorated the base!! Shut the damned thing down until Jan 1 — Dont just let them have funding!!! This is madness.
Waste of time.....as it says in the title,,,,”SYMBOLIC “ we need to go for impeachment for ALL his crimes.
Probably because this was nothing-burger symbolism.
RE: What we want is to stop funding the uncostitutional power grab by the White House. We want obama care defunded.
OK, they defund it as part of a spending bill... WHO SIGNS IT INTO LAW?
Anything that requires Obama’s signature will be VETOED.
And neither house has the 2/3 numbers needed to override it.
What happens next? A test of wills of course.... which means another government shutdown.
I for one am for it. I’m not sure if most of America is for it though.
Probably because this is only SYMBOLIC and he knows it’s a joke on citizen voters.
Keep in mind that
THEY DON’T WANT TO STOP AMNESTY.
RE: we need to go for impeachment for ALL his crimes.
Need 2/3 of Senate to have him removed.
Won’t happen, a waste of time.
/johnny
“House passes symbolic bill to block Obama’s executive amnesty.”
I just passed symbolic gas to let the House know what I think of their symbolic vote.
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